Image forming apparatus, image forming apparatus utilization system, and method for generating image data

ABSTRACT

An image forming apparatus reading documents based on a scenario and generating image data to transmit the image data with the scenario includes a scenario retrieving unit retrieving scenarios from a scenario storage device; a scenario reception unit receiving the retrieved scenarios; a plural scenario selection identification unit determining whether plural scenarios are received; a scenario destination acquisition unit acquiring, if the plural scenarios are received, delivery destination information from the received the plural scenarios; a duplicated scenario destination identification unit determining whether duplicated delivery destination information is in the acquired delivery destination information; a scenario processing unit carrying out, if the duplicated delivery destination information is contained, processing on one of the plural scenarios to create a processed scenario to transmit the image data once to a destination of the duplicated delivery destination information; and a scenario registration request unit storing the processed scenario in the scenario storage device.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention generally relates to an image forming apparatus thatgenerates image data based on scenarios. Specifically, the inventionrelates to an image forming apparatus having an excellent user-friendlyinterface capable of facilitating a user's understanding of arelationship between destinations and processing conditions for imagedata when the image forming apparatus generates the image data based onplural scenarios, an image forming apparatus utilization system and amethod for generating the image data in the image forming apparatus.

2. Description of the Related Art

Directory services are often utilized in network systems. A directoryservice allows searching user information stored in servers over acomputer network such as a LAN, including accessible printers andservers, from clients. One such a directory service is known as an“Active Directory”.

Various types of directory services may be available. In one example ofthe directory service technology (e.g., Japanese Laid-Open PatentPublication No. 2003-087479), different processing conditions forcorresponding image forming apparatuses are stored in an external serverin advance, and one of the image forming apparatuses is caused toretrieve the corresponding processing condition from the server, set theretrieved processing condition, and execute processing based on the setprocessing condition. With this directory service technology, a user iscapable of executing desired processing on the image forming apparatuswith a minimum operation of the image forming apparatus.

Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-087479 discloses an imagereading system that can easily set read information such as readconditions and destinations of image readers connected to a network withexcellent user-friendliness. In the image reading system having ascanner and a scan server mutually connected via a network, when thescanner receives the user ID, the scanner transmits the user ID to thescan server via the network, the scan server determines whether thetransmitted user ID matches a user ID registered in an internal memoryof the scan server, and if the transmitted user ID matches the user IDregistered in the internal memory of the scan server, the scan servertransmits the read information corresponding to the user ID to thescanner.

Such an image reading system utilizing the scanner disclosed in JapaneseLaid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-087479 is capable of transmittingthe image data scanned by the scanner via electronic mail; however,setting for the delivery (i.e., transmission of the image data) such asa method for delivering the image data or delivery destination of theimage data are registered in the external server. Accordingly, in therelated art directory service technology, if a user desires to transmitimage data to plural destinations (e.g., plural email addresses), theuser also needs to select plural processing conditions. However, sincethe selected plural processing conditions are mutually different fromone another, it is generally difficult for the user to understand towhich destinations the image data are to be transmitted, and under whichprocessing conditions such image data are to be read. That is, it isgenerally difficult for the user to understand a relationship betweendestinations and corresponding image data.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention may provide a noveland useful image forming apparatus having an excellent user-friendlyinterface capable of facilitating a user's understanding of arelationship between destinations and processing conditions for imagedata when plural processing conditions are selected in the directoryservice, an image forming apparatus utilization system and a method forgenerating the image data in the image forming apparatus solving one ormore of the problems discussed above.

In one embodiment, there is provided an image forming apparatusconnected to a scenario storage device and an image delivery apparatusvia a network, the image forming apparatus being configured to read adocument based on a scenario to generate image data and transmit theimage data with the scenario to the image delivery apparatus, thescenario storage device being configured to store a set of the scenariosauthorized for a user of the image forming apparatus, each of thescenarios including a document reading setting for reading the documentto generate the image data and a delivery setting having deliverydestination information for delivering the image data, the imagedelivery apparatus including a scenario validity evaluation unitconfigured to evaluate validity of the scenario transmitted from theimage forming apparatus based on whether the transmitted scenariomatches one of the scenarios in the set of the scenarios authorized forthe user stored in the scenario storage device and a delivery unitconfigured to deliver, if the scenario validity evaluation unitvalidates the transmitted scenario, the image data based on the deliverydestination information of the transmitted scenario. The image formingapparatus includes: a scenario retrieving unit configured to retrievethe set of the scenarios authorized for the user from the scenariostorage device; a scenario reception unit configured to receive at leastone of the scenarios selected by the user from the set of the scenariosretrieved from the scenario retrieving unit; a plural scenario selectionidentification unit configured to determine whether the scenarioreception unit has received the plural scenarios selected by the userfrom the set of the scenarios retrieved from the scenario retrievingunit; a scenario destination acquisition unit configured to acquire, ifthe scenario reception unit has received the plural scenarios selectedby the user from the set of the scenarios retrieved from the scenarioretrieving unit, the delivery destination information from the pluralscenarios selected by the user from the set of the scenarios retrievedfrom the scenario retrieving unit to create a set of the acquireddelivery destination information; a duplicated scenario destinationidentification unit configured to determine whether duplicated deliverydestination information is contained in the set of the acquired deliverydestination information obtained from the plural scenarios by thescenario destination acquisition unit; a scenario processing unitconfigured to carry out, if the duplicated scenario destinationidentification unit has determined that the duplicated deliverydestination information is contained in the set of the acquired deliverydestination information obtained from the plural scenarios by thescenario destination acquisition unit, processing on at least one of theplural scenarios to create a new set of the plural scenarios includingthe at least one processed scenario such that the image data aretransmitted once to a delivery destination of the duplicated deliverydestination information based on the new set of the plural scenariosincluding the at least one processed scenario; and a scenarioregistration request unit configured to store the at least one processedscenario in the scenario storage device.

According to another embodiment, there is provided an image formingapparatus utilization system that includes: an image forming apparatusconfigured to read a document based on a scenario to generate image dataand transmit the image data with the scenario; a scenario storage deviceconfigured to store a set of the scenarios authorized for a user of theimage forming apparatus, each of the scenarios including a documentreading setting for reading the document to generate the image data anda delivery setting having delivery destination information fordelivering the image data carried out by the image forming apparatus;and an image delivery apparatus including a scenario validity evaluationunit configured to evaluate validity of the scenario transmitted fromthe image forming apparatus based on whether the transmitted scenariomatches one of the scenarios in the set of the scenarios authorized forthe user stored in the scenario storage device, and a delivery unitconfigured to deliver the image data based on the delivery destinationinformation of the transmitted scenario if the scenario validityevaluation unit validates the transmitted scenario, the image formingapparatus, the scenario storage device, and the image delivery apparatusbeing connected via a network. In the image forming apparatusutilization system, the image forming apparatus includes: a scenarioretrieving unit configured to retrieve the set of the scenariosauthorized for the user from the scenario storage device; a scenarioreception unit configured to receive at least one of the scenariosselected by the user from the set of the scenarios retrieved from thescenario retrieving unit; a plural scenario selection identificationunit configured to determine whether the scenario reception unit hasreceived the plural scenarios selected by the user from the set of thescenarios retrieved from the scenario retrieving unit; a scenariodestination acquisition unit configured to acquire, if the scenarioreception unit has received the plural scenarios selected by the userfrom the set of the scenarios retrieved from the scenario retrievingunit, the delivery destination information from the plural scenariosselected by the user from the set of the scenarios retrieved from thescenario retrieving unit to create a set of the acquired deliverydestination information; a duplicated scenario destinationidentification unit configured to determine whether duplicated deliverydestination information is contained in the set of the acquired deliverydestination information obtained from the plural scenarios by thescenario destination acquisition unit; a scenario processing unitconfigured to carry out, if the duplicated scenario destinationidentification unit has determined that the duplicated deliverydestination information is contained in the set of the acquired deliverydestination information obtained from the plural scenarios by thescenario destination acquisition unit, processing on at least one of theplural scenarios to create a new set of the plural scenarios includingthe at least one processed scenario such that the image data aretransmitted once to a delivery destination of the duplicated deliverydestination information based on the new set of the plural scenariosincluding the at least one processed scenario; and scenario registrationrequest unit configured to store the at least one processed scenario inthe scenario storage device.

According to still another embodiment, there is provided a method forgenerating image data in an image forming apparatus for reading adocument based on a scenario to generate the image data and transmittingthe image data with the scenario to an image delivery apparatus, theimage forming apparatus being connected to a scenario storage device andto the image delivery apparatus via a network, the scenario storagedevice being configured to store a set of the scenarios authorized for auser of the image forming apparatus, each of the scenarios including adocument reading setting for reading the document to generate the imagedata and a delivery setting having delivery destination information fordelivering the image data, the image delivery apparatus including ascenario validity evaluation unit configured to evaluate validity of thescenario transmitted from the image forming apparatus based on whetherthe transmitted scenario matches one of the scenarios in the set of thescenarios authorized for the user stored in the scenario storage deviceand a delivery unit configured to deliver, if the scenario validityevaluation unit validates the transmitted scenario, the transmittedimage data based on the delivery destination information contained inthe transmitted scenario. The method includes: retrieving the set of thescenarios authorized for the user from the scenario storage device;receiving at least one of the scenarios selected by the user from theretrieved set of the scenarios; determining whether the plural scenariosselected by the user from the retrieved set of the scenarios have beenreceived; acquiring, if the plural scenarios selected by the user fromthe retrieved set of the scenarios have been received, the deliverydestination information from the plural scenarios selected by the userfrom the retrieved set of the scenarios to create a set of the acquireddelivery destination information; determining whether duplicateddelivery destination information is contained in the set of the acquireddelivery destination information obtained from the plural scenarios;carrying out, if the duplicated delivery destination information iscontained in the set of the acquired delivery destination informationobtained from the plural scenarios, processing on at least one of theplural scenarios to create a new set of the plural scenarios includingthe at least one processed scenario such that the image data aretransmitted once to a delivery destination of the duplicated deliverydestination information based on the new set of the plural scenariosincluding the at least one processed scenario; and storing the at leastone processed scenario in the scenario storage device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other objects and further features of embodiments will be apparent fromthe following detailed description when read in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration example of animage forming apparatus utilization system according to a firstembodiment;

FIGS. 2A through 2C are schematic diagrams illustrating examples ofoperations of the image forming apparatus utilization system;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configurationof an image forming apparatus;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configurationof a scenario making device (SMC), a scenario registering device (AD),and an image delivery server;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a scenario;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an example of functionalcomponents of the image forming apparatus utilization system accordingto the first embodiment;

FIGS. 7A through 7C are diagrams illustrating examples of editingscenarios;

FIGS. 8A and 8B depict a sequence diagram illustrating an example of aprocedure for registering scenario regardless of capability of an imageforming apparatus in the image forming apparatus utilization system;

FIGS. 9A and 9B depict a sequence diagram illustrating an example of aprocedure in which scenarios are executed while preventing duplicatedtransmission of image data to same delivery addresses when the scenarioshave the same delivery addresses in the image forming apparatusutilization system;

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a scenario selectionscreen displayed on an operations panel;

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a set of plural selectedscenarios;

FIGS. 12A, 12B and 12C are diagrams illustrating different types ofmethods in which image data are transmitted once to the deliverydestinations in the scenarios when two or more scenarios include theduplicated delivery destination information;

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a scenario DB beforeregistering the scenarios and after registering the scenarios;

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating another example of the scenario DBbefore registering the scenarios and after registering the scenarios;

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating an example of functionalcomponents of an image forming apparatus utilization system according toa second embodiment;

FIGS. 16A and 16B depict a sequence diagram illustrating an example of aprocedure in which one of duplicated delivery destination informationcontained in plural scenarios is deleted and the validity of the deleteddelivery destination information is evaluated;

FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating an example of functionalcomponents of an image forming apparatus utilization system according toa third embodiment;

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an example of scenarios' sequentialnumbers recorded by a scenario selected order determination section thatare shown in the order of selection;

FIGS. 19A and 19B depict a sequence diagram illustrating an example of aprocedure in which a first scenario in the order of selection isspecified;

FIG. 20 is a block diagram illustrating an example of functionalcomponents of an image forming apparatus utilization system according toa fourth embodiment;

FIGS. 21A and 21B depict a sequence diagram illustrating an example of aprocedure in which a cheapest scenario is specified;

FIG. 22 is a block diagram illustrating an example of functionalcomponents of an image forming apparatus utilization system according toa fifth embodiment;

FIGS. 23A and 23B depict a sequence diagram illustrating an example of aprocedure in which a user selects a scenario that includes duplicateddelivery destination information;

FIG. 24 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen displaying alist of scenarios on an operations panel;

FIG. 25 is a block diagram illustrating an example of functionalcomponents of the image forming utilization system according to a sixthembodiment;

FIG. 26 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen for setting ascenario selection criterion when the delivery destination informationis duplicated in the scenarios;

FIGS. 27A and 27B depict a sequence diagram illustrating an example of aprocedure in which an image forming apparatus selects the scenariosbased on the scenario selection criterion selected (set) by the user;

FIG. 28 is a block diagram illustrating an example of functionalcomponents of the image forming utilization system according to aseventh embodiment;

FIGS. 29A and 29B depict a sequence diagram illustrating an example of aprocedure in which an image forming apparatus selects the scenariosbased on the scenario selection criterion selected (set) by the user;and

FIG. 30 is a diagram illustrating an example of a scenario determinationbasis selection screen displayed on an operations panel.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In the following, preferred embodiments are described with reference tothe accompanying drawings.

First Embodiment

An image forming apparatus utilization system according to a firstembodiment is described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 is aschematic diagram illustrating a configuration of an image formingapparatus utilization system 100 according to the first embodiment. Theimage forming apparatus utilization system 100 includes a scenariocreation device 11 (hereinafter called a “SMC 11”) 11 configured tocreate later described scenarios; a scenario registration device 12(hereinafter called an “AD 12”); image forming apparatuses 1, 2, 3, . .. (or image forming apparatuses 13 as a whole) configured to include theSMC 11, to provide apparatus capability information required by the SMC11 when the SMC 11 creates a scenario, to read an original document togenerate image data, and to transmit the generated image data and thecreated scenario; and an image delivery server 14 configured to receivethe transmitted image data and scenarios from the image formingapparatus 13, to carry out, after having evaluated the validity of thereceived scenario, processing (e.g., transmission of the image data toanother information processing apparatus) on the received image databased on a delivery method specified by the scenario.

Note that in this embodiment, the SMC 11, the AD 12, and the imagedelivery server 14 are treated as separate computers; however, theirfunctions may be integrated in one or two computers. The respectivefunctions of the SMC 11, the AD 12, and the image delivery server 14 maybe implemented as application software that can be executed as separatefunctions in a computer.

Note also that in the following, an operator who operates the SMC 11 toregister a scenario is called an “administrator”, and an operator whooperates the image forming apparatus 13 to utilize the registeredscenario is called a “user”. The administrator and the user may be thesame operator. In this embodiment, a scanning condition is given as anexample of the processing condition; however, the processing conditionmay include a copying condition or a printing condition.

FIGS. 2A through 2C are schematic diagrams illustrating examples ofoperations of the image forming apparatus utilization system 100.

<Scenario Registration>

(A1) The administrator operates the SMC 11 to create a scenario. Thescenario is a collection of setting information on the image formingapparatus 13 including a “reading setting”, a “delivery setting”, a“user name”, a “password”, a “model”, and an “apparatus identifier”.

The SMC 11 includes a user interface called a “scanner managementconsole” that is implemented as a function or application software of aspecific OS (e.g., Windows (Registered Trademark) VISTA and 7 orequivalents). The scanner management console is an example of the userinterface via which the administrator communicates with the imageforming apparatuses 13 and the AD 12 or the administrator sets varioustypes of information. The SMC 11 communicates with the image formingapparatuses 13 based on a predetermined protocol such as a WS-EWS.

In order to create scenarios, capability information of the imageforming apparatuses 13 may be needed. The SMC 11 queries the imageforming apparatus 13 about the capability information or state of theimage forming apparatus 13 (see FIG. 2A). Note that the image formingapparatus 13 in this embodiment is a scanner apparatus.

(A2) When the SMC 11 requests the image forming apparatus 13 to provideits capability information, the image forming apparatus 13 provides itscapability information to the SMC 11 in response to that request. Notethat the SMC 11 may receive the capability information of the imageforming apparatus 13 before the administrator's operation to create ascenario or simultaneously with the administrator's operation to createa scenario.

The SMC 11 displays the capability information received from the imageforming apparatus 13. The administrator may register a reading settingfor the image forming apparatus 13 within a range based on thecapability information of the image forming apparatus 13. Theadministrator may also register a “user name” and a “password” of theuser who utilizes the delivery setting and the reading setting for theimage forming apparatus 13.

(A3) The SMC 11 then registers a scenario including the above varioustypes of information in the AD 12. The AD 12 saves (stores) the scenarioincluding the above various types of information. The AD 12 organizesPCs, scanners; printers, copiers, and facsimile machines connected overplural networks into a hierarchy of a domain (an administrative unit ofusers and computers). For example, The administrator may define ascanner that can be connected to from a PC. So far, a process flow ofthe scenario registration is described.

As will be described later, when the SMC 11 creates one scenario (afirst scenario) based on the image forming apparatus 1, the SMC 11 newlycreates second or third scenarios by applying the first scenario to theimage forming apparatuses 2 and 3. Accordingly, when the first scenariofor the image forming apparatus 1 is registered, the second and thirdscenarios that can implement the same processing for the image formingapparatuses 2 and 3 may be automatically registered.

<Use of Scenario>

Next, a procedure of the use of the scenario is described (see FIGS. 2Band 2C).

(B1) A user carries out an authentication operation on (logs into) theimage forming apparatus 13, and the image forming apparatus 13 acquiresthe scenarios authorized for the login user. Since scenarios areassociated with corresponding users who are authorized to use thescenarios, the scenarios associated with the users who are authorized touse the image forming apparatus 13 are transmitted to the image formingapparatus 13.

(B2) The user selects one or more of the scenarios displayed on anoperations panel 57 of the image forming apparatus 13 and then presses astart key to scan a document. Note that an operation of the imageforming apparatus 13 based on the scenario is also called an “executionof scenario”.

(B3) In this embodiment, when the user selects plural differentscenarios and the selected different scenarios include duplicateddelivery destination information, the duplicated delivery destinationinformation among the selected different scenarios is deleted from theplural scenarios such that the same image data are not transmitted tothe same delivery destination two or more times. That is, if the pluraldifferent scenarios include the duplicated delivery destinationinformation, the image forming apparatus 13 carries out the laterdescribed different processing on the plural different scenarios.

(B4) When the selection of scenarios are changed, the image deliveryserver 14 is configured not to be allowed to deliver the image databased on the changed selection of scenarios for security reasons.However, since the image forming apparatus 13 registers the changedselection of scenarios in the AD 12, the image delivery server 14 candeliver the image data based on the changed selection of scenarios.

(B5) The image forming apparatus 13 reads the image data based on ascenario reading setting, and transmits the read image data and theselected scenarios (changed selection of scenarios) to the imagedelivery server 14. The image forming apparatus 13 communicates with theimage delivery server 14 based on a predetermined protocol such as aWS-EWS (see FIG. 2C).

(B6) The image delivery server 14 determines whether the selectedscenarios received with the image data are registered in the AD 12. Inthis manner, the validity of the selected scenarios executed by theimage forming apparatus 13 can be evaluated (scenario validityevaluation), thereby obtaining security for delivering the image data.

Thus, since the image forming apparatus 13 registers the changedselection of scenarios in the AD 12, the image delivery server 14 iscapable of determining whether the selected scenarios received with theimage data are registered in the AD 12. The image delivery server 14transmits the image data when it has determined that the scenarios arevalid.

(B7) The image delivery server 14 carries out processing on the imagedata such as delivering based on a delivery setting (e.g., deliverytypes, delivery destinations) contained in the scenarios. As illustratedin FIG. 2B, the delivery types include “Scan to E-mail”, “Scan toFileShare”, and “Scan to Sharepoint”.

[Hardware Configuration of Image Forming Apparatus]

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configurationof the image forming apparatus 13. The image forming apparatus 13 is amultifunction peripheral (MFP) that includes a scanner 69, a printer 67,and a facsimile control unit 68. In this embodiment, the image formingapparatus 13 is described as the MFP; however, the image formingapparatus 13 may be configured to at least include the scanner 69.

The image forming apparatus 13 further includes a controller 51 and anoperations panel 57. The controller 51 includes a CPU 52, a systemmemory 54, a north bridge (NB) 53, a south bridge (SB) 59, anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC) 58, a local memory 55, anHDD 56, a network interface card (NIC) 61, a USB device 62, an IEEE 1394device 63, and a Centronics device 64.

A storage medium 65 is removable from the USB device 62, and a computerprogram 66 stored in the storage medium 65 is installed in the HDD 56from the storage medium 65. The computer program 66 may be installed inthe HDD 56 via the NIC 61 from a not-shown server.

The CPU 52 controls the hardware of the entire image forming apparatus13. The CPU 52 executes processes for application software and functionof an OS. The NB 53 is a bridge. The SB 59 is a bridge to connect a PCIbus to a ROM and peripherals. The system memory 54 may be utilized as agraphic memory for the image forming apparatus 13. The local memory 55is utilized as a copying image buffer or a code buffer.

The ASIC 58 is an image processing IC having a hardware component forimage processing. The HDD 56 is an example of a storage (i.e., anauxiliary storage) that accumulates data such as image data, documentdata, the computer program 66, and font data. The NIC 61 is an interfacethat connects the image forming apparatus to the networks. The USBdevice 62, the IEEE 1394 device 63, and the Centronics device 64 areinterfaces complying with the corresponding standards, which areconnected to a PC to receive data such as printing data.

The operations panel 57 is an operations unit to receive informationinput by a user and to display an outcome of the input to the user. Theoperations panel 57 includes a touch panel on a display and a hardwarekeyboard arranged around the touch panel. The printer 67 may be either amonochrome plotter or a color plotter that forms an image per page basedon print job data or image data scanned by the scanner 69, and transfersthe formed image onto a sheet of paper. For example, the printer 67forms a toner image on a photoconductor drum based on anelectrophotographic imaging process where a laser beam is used,transfers the formed toner image onto a sheet of paper, fixes thetransferred toner image on the sheet by the application of heat andpressure on it, and outputs the sheet with the fixed image.

The scanner 69 also optically scans a document placed on a contactglass, carries out an AD (analog-to-digital) conversion on reflectedlight of the scanned document, carries out various image processing suchas image region separation, background removing processing,γ-conversion, isolated point removing processing, color conversionprocessing, and scaling processing to obtain digital data having apredetermined resolution, thereby forming image data.

The facsimile control unit 68 is connected via a network control unit(NCU) to a public telecommunication network, and carries out facsimiletransmission based on a communication protocol (communication process)compatible with facsimile machines complying with standards such as G3or G4. Note that the facsimile control unit 68 includes a memory totemporarily store facsimile data received while the image formingapparatus is turned off.

[Hardware Configuration of SMC, AD, and Image Delivery Server]

The SMC 11, the AD 12, and the image delivery server 14 are respectivecomputers, an entity of which is a personal computer or a workstation.The hardware configuration is common to the SMC 11, the AD 12, and theimage delivery server 14, so that the description of the hardwareconfiguration is given based on the SMC 11 as an example.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configurationof the SMC 11, the AD 12, and the image delivery server 14. The SMC 11includes a CPU 71 and a memory 72 having a ROM or a RAM that areconnected to a bus line. The bus line is connected with an HDD 75 thatis a large-capacity storage, an input device 76 such as a keyboard or amouse, a monitor control unit 77 that is connected to a display 80 suchas a LCD or a CRT, and a storage medium reader 73 that reads a storagemedium 78 such as an optical disk via predetermined interfaces. The busline is also connected to a predetermined network device 74 thatcommunicates with networks including the Internet or with externaldevices such as a USB via predetermined interfaces. The HDD 75 of theSMC 11 includes a computer program 79 that automatically createsscenarios (SMC 11 case only). The HDD 75 of the AD 12 includes acomputer program 79 that registers the scenarios, and the HDD 75 of theimage delivery server 14 includes a computer program 79 that deliversimage data. Such a computer program 79 is read by the storage mediumreader 73 from the storage medium 78 or is downloaded via the networkssuch as the Internet so as to be installed in the HDD 75 of the SMI 11,AD 12 or image delivery server 14. After the installation of thecomputer program 79, the SMC 11 is capable of automatically creatingscenarios or supporting an administrator to create scenarios.

The CPU 71 of the SMC 11 retrieves the computer program 79 from the HDD75 and executes the computer program 79 utilizing the RAM of the memory72 as a working memory, thereby implementing a scenario central-controlsection 21, a scenario creation section 25, a capability switch section22, a scenario auto-creation section 24, and an apparatus search section23 as illustrated in FIG. 6. Likewise, the CPU 71 of the ADC 12retrieves the computer program 79 from the HDD 75 and executes thecomputer program 79 utilizing the RAM of the memory 72 as a workingmemory, thereby implementing a scenario registration section 26 and ascenario search section 29 as illustrated in FIG. 6. Likewise, the CPU71 of the image delivery server 14 retrieves the computer program 79from the HDD 75 and executes the computer program 79 utilizing the RAMof the memory 72 as a working memory, thereby implementing a scenariovalidity evaluation section 41 and an image delivery section 42 asillustrated in FIG. 6.

In the network device 74, communication connections of a physical layerand a data link layer are established between the SMC 11, the AD 12, theimage delivery server 14 and the image forming apparatus 13 in order tocommunicate with one another based on a TCP/IP protocol. For example,the communication between the AD 12 and the image forming apparatus 13is carried out based on a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP)which is located at a higher layer than the layer of the TCP/IP. TheLDAP is a versatile protocol in directory services, and is used tosearch the AD 12 for a scenario from the image forming apparatus 13.

Note that the SMC 11, the AD 12, and the image delivery server 14 may beintegrated in one computer as described above. Alternatively, the SMC 11and the AD 12 may be integrated in one computer, and the image deliveryserver 14 is implemented in a separate computer. Further, the SMC 11 andthe image delivery server 14 may be integrated in one computer, and theAD 12 is implemented in a separate computer. Moreover, the AD 12 and theimage delivery server 14 may be integrated in one computer, and the SMC11 is implemented in a separate computer.

[Scenario]

First, descriptions of scenarios are given below with reference to FIG.5. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating examples of scenarios that areregistered in a later described scenario DB 28. Each of the scenariosincludes registered information corresponding to a “reading setting”, a“delivery setting”, a “user name”, a “password”, a “model”, and an“apparatus identifier” as illustrated in FIG. 5. The “reading setting”includes “resolution”, “density”, a “color mode”, and a “paper size”items, in which corresponding information on each of the scenarios isregistered. The delivery setting includes a “delivery type” and an“address” items, in which corresponding information on each of thescenarios is registered. The “address” contains delivery destinationinformation to identify duplicated addresses or delivery destinations.

The user name is used for identifying a user, and the password is usedfor authenticating a user who has logged into the image formingapparatus. The apparatus identifier is a unique value assigned to eachof the image forming apparatuses 13 (i.e., image forming apparatuses 1to 3 in FIG. 1). The apparatus identifier identifies one of the imageforming apparatuses 13 (image forming apparatuses 1 to 3) for which ascenario registered in the scenario DB 28 is generated. That is, theregistered scenario can be effective in the image forming apparatus 13identified by the apparatus identifier.

The image forming apparatus 13 acquires a scenario from the AD 12 andsets the acquired scenario to the reading setting based on which thescanner 69 is operated. Note that a scenario reading setting including“resolution”, “density”, a “color mode”, and a “paper size” correspondsto the reading setting based on which the scanner 69 is operated. Inthis manner, the image forming apparatus 13 is capable of reading adocument to generate image data without the user's operating theoperations panel 57 to set the “resolution”, “density”, “color mode”,and “paper size”.

Note that whether all or part of the reading setting set by theapplication of the scenario reading setting can be changed by the user'soperation of the operations panel 57 may vary with a design policy foreach directory service. In the first embodiment, if the scenariotransmitted together with the image data to the image delivery server 14differs from the one registered in the AD 12 due to the change in thetransmitted scenario, the image delivery server 14 is configured not totransmit the image data.

In addition, when the image data and the corresponding scenario aretransmitted to the image delivery server 14, the image delivery server14 evaluates the validity of the transmitted scenario, and delivers, ifthe transmitted scenario is valid, the image data based on the deliverysetting contained in the transmitted scenario. Thus, the scenario is aprescribed condition that defines how image data are generated and howthe image data are delivered.

[Functional Configuration of Image Forming Apparatus Utilization System]

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an example of functionalcomponents of the image forming apparatus utilization system 100according to the first embodiment.

<SMC 11>

The SMC 11 includes the scenario central-control section 21, thecapability switch section 22, the apparatus search section 23, thescenario auto-creation section 24, and a scenario creation section 25.The SMC 11 creates a scenario to register it with the AD 12. There aretwo methods for creating a scenario: 1) the administrator operates theSMC 11 to create a scenario; and 2) the SMC automatically creates ascenario identical to the one created by the administrator.

The capability switch section 22 acquires corresponding capabilityinformation of the image forming apparatuses 13. The capabilityinformation includes equivalent information to information registered inthe reading setting. In order to request the capability information fromthe image forming apparatuses 13, the capability switch section 22requires corresponding location information on the image formingapparatuses 13 connected over the networks. The location information iscommunication information that is used for communicating with the imageforming apparatuses 13 connected over the networks. The locationinformation includes the apparatus identifier, the model, a MAC address,and an IP address of the image forming apparatus 13. The capabilityswitch section 22 requests the apparatus search section 23 to acquirethe location information on the image forming apparatus 13 in thenetwork subject to search and provide the acquired location informationon the image forming apparatus 13 to the capability switch section 22.

The apparatus search section 23 acquires the location information on theimage forming apparatus 13 in the network subject to search. Theapparatus search section 23 requests a central-execution section 31(scenario reception unit) of the image forming apparatus 13 to search anetwork search area set by the administrator (e.g., specified by anetwork address) for the location information based on the WS-EWSprotocol as described above. The image forming apparatuses 13 in thenetwork subject to search may be limited to those having a scannerfunction.

The location information on the image forming apparatus 13 may besearched by the apparatus search section 23 based on a simple networkprotocol (SNMP). The SNMP is a protocol based on which a network systemis managed by monitoring apparatuses connected over the network. Theapparatus search section 23 simultaneously transmits the search requests(i.e., location information) to the apparatuses in the network.

The respective image forming apparatuses 13 store their locationinformation in a database called a management information base (MIB) orMIB2. The respective image forming apparatuses 13 specify their locationinformation from their apparatus information and transmit the locationinformation to the apparatus search section 23. Accordingly, in thisembodiment, the SMC 11 corresponds to an SNMP manager of the SNMPprotocol, and the image forming apparatus 13 corresponds to an SNMPagent.

The apparatus search section 23 transfers the acquired locationinformation to the capability switch section 22 (e.g., stored in theRAM). The capability switch section 22 requests the image formingapparatuses 13 in the network to provide the corresponding capabilityinformation based on the location information (e.g., apparatusidentifier, model, MAC address, and IP address). In this process, theWS-EWS protocol, or the SNMP protocol and MIB2 may be used in a similarmanner as the searching process, or HTTP and FTP protocols may also beused.

The scenario central-control section 21 is a control section forcreating a scenario. Specifically, the scenario central-control section21 acquires the capability information of the image forming apparatus 13from the capability switch section 22, and requests the scenariocreation section 25 to create a scenario. For example, when theadministrator operates the SMC 11 to create a scenario for the imageforming apparatus 1, scenario central-control section 21 transfers thescenario created by the administrator to the scenario creation section25. The scenario creation section 25 modifies the scenario in apredetermined format and stores the modified scenario in the memory 72or the HDD 75. The scenario central-control section 21 requests thescenario registration section 26 of the AD 12 to register the scenariocreated by the scenario creation section 25.

Further, when creating scenarios for the image forming apparatuses 2, 3,4 . . . (hereinafter called image forming apparatus n; n=2, 3, 4 . . . )other than that for the image forming apparatus 1, the scenariocentral-control section 21 transfers the scenario for the image formingapparatus 1 created by the SMC 11 to scenario creation section 25 tocreate a scenario for the image forming apparatus 2, and the scenariocentral-control section 21 transfers the scenario created by thescenario creation section 25 to the scenario auto-creation section 24.The scenario auto-creation section 24 requests the scenario creationsection 25 to create a scenario corresponding to the image formingapparatus n. As described above, the scenario auto-creation section 24collaborates with the scenario creation section 25 to automaticallycreate the scenario corresponding to the image forming apparatus n. Notethat the scenario creation section 25 makes a copy of the scenario forthe image forming apparatus 1 created by the administrator as a scenariofor the image forming apparatus n.

The above process of automatic creation of the scenario for the imageforming apparatus n is only one example, and alternatively, the scenariofor the image forming apparatus n may be automatically created by thescenario auto-creation section 24 alone. In this embodiment, a “scenariocreation” indicates a process in which the administrator operates theSMC 11 to create a scenario for the image forming apparatus 1, and an“automatic scenario creation” indicates a process in which the SMC 11creates a scenario based on the scenario for the image forming apparatus1 created by the administrator.

The scenario central-control section 21 automatically creates thescenario for the image forming apparatus n in different manners asfollows.

a. The scenario central-control section 21 automatically creates thescenario for the image forming apparatus n regardless of the capabilityof the image forming apparatus n.

b. The scenario central-control section 21 automatically creates thescenario for the image forming apparatus n based on the capability ofthe image forming apparatus n.

b1. The scenario central-control section 21 automatically creates thescenario for the image forming apparatus n based on the image formingapparatus 1 having a model identical to the image forming apparatus n.

b2. The scenario central-control section 21 automatically creates thescenario for the image forming apparatus n based on the image formingapparatus 1 having a specification identical to the image formingapparatus n.

When the scenario central-control section 21 automatically creates thescenario for the image forming apparatus n by the b1 or b2 manner, thescenario central-control section 21 determines whether to automaticallycreate the scenario for the image forming apparatus n. If the scenariocentral-control section 21 determines to automatically create thescenario, the scenario central-control section 21 requests the scenarioauto-creation section 24 to create the scenario. In the b1 or b2 manner,the scenario central-control section 21 automatically creates thescenario for the image forming apparatus n based on the capability ofthe image forming apparatus n. Accordingly, it is possible to create ascenario that excludes a capability that is not supported by the imageforming apparatus n.

For example, there may be a case where the image forming apparatus 1 iscapable of carrying out color printing based on the scenario for theimage forming apparatus 1 created by the administrator, but thecapability information of the image forming apparatus n indicates nocolor printing capability of the image forming apparatus n. In such acase, the scenario central-control section 21 determines not to createthe scenario for the image forming apparatus n based on the result ofwhether the image forming apparatus n includes the model orspecification identical to the image forming apparatus 1. Further, theimage forming apparatus 1 is capable of reading a document at 600 dpiresolution based on the scenario for the image forming apparatus 1created by the administrator, but the capability information of theimage forming apparatus n indicates that the image forming apparatus nhas a maximum resolution of 400 dpi. In such a case, the scenariocentral-control section 21 is capable of determining not to create thescenario for the image forming apparatus n.

<AD 12>

The AD 12 includes a scenario registration section 26, a scenario searchsection 29, and a scenario DB 28. The scenario registration section 26is connected to the scenario DB 28. The scenario registration section 26of the AD 12 receives a scenario from the scenario central-controlsection 21 of the SMC 11, and registers it with the scenario DB 28. Thescenario registered in the scenario DB 28 can be searched for by theimage forming apparatus 13. The scenario registration section 26 storesthe registered scenario in the scenario DB 28, an entity of which may bean HDD 75 or a solid state drive (SSD).

Note that the scenario registration section 26 of the AD 12 receives ascenario registration request and the scenario from a scenarioregistration request section 38 (scenario registration request unit) ofthe image forming apparatus 13, and registers the received scenario inthe scenario DB 28. A method for registering the scenario includes 1)registering a new scenario by adding it as a new entry to the existingscenarios, and registering a new scenario by overwriting part of theexisting scenarios with the new scenario. In this embodiment, adescription of the method 1) is given as an example.

The scenario search section 29 receives a user name and an apparatusidentifier of the image forming apparatus 13 from a scenario retrievingsection 37 (scenario retrieving unit) of the image forming apparatus 13,searches for scenarios associated with the user name and the apparatusidentifier of the image forming apparatus 13, and transmits to thescenario retrieving section 37 of the image forming apparatus 13 all thecorresponding scenarios associated with the user name and the apparatusidentifier of the image forming apparatus 13.

Likewise, the scenario search section 29 receives a user name and anapparatus identifier of the image delivery server 14 from the scenariovalidity evaluation section 41 of the image delivery server 14, searchesfor scenarios associated with the user name and the apparatus identifierof the image delivery server 14, and transmits to scenario validityevaluation section 41 of the image delivery server 14 all thecorresponding scenarios associated with the user name and the apparatusidentifier of the image delivery server 14.

<Image Forming Apparatus 13>

The image forming apparatus 13 includes the scenario retrieving section37, the central-execution section 31, a data transmission section 32, adocument read section 33, a scenario destination acquisition section 34(scenario destination acquisition unit), a duplicated scenariodestination identification section 35 (duplicated scenario destinationidentification unit), a plural scenario selection determination section36, and the scenario registration request section 38. Correspondingfunctional components of the above sections may be implemented bycausing the CPU 52 of the image forming apparatus 13 to execute thecomputer program 66.

Operations of the image forming apparatus 13 are briefly describedbelow. A user inputs his or her user name and password combination tolog into the image forming apparatus 13. The user may alternativelyinput his or her user name by selecting his or her user namepreregistered with the image forming apparatus 13 on the operationspanel 57. In this case, the password associated with his or her username is automatically specified when the user selects his or her username.

The user operates the operations panel 57 to retrieve scenarios. Theimage forming apparatus 13 receives the operation result of theoperations panel 57 to acquire the scenarios authorized for the userfrom the AD 12. The image forming apparatus 13 displays a list of thescenarios received from the AD 12 on the operations panel 57. When theuser selects one or more of the scenarios on the operations panel 57,the image forming apparatus 13 receives the selected result and transmitthe selected scenarios to a scanner application. In this manner, thereading settings are applied with the selected scenarios such that thereading settings identical to the selected scenarios are set in theimage forming apparatus 13. When the user presses a “start” key, thescanner 69 carries out operations based on the reading settings set bythe scanner application based on the selected scenarios.

The functional components of the image forming apparatus 13 aredescribed below. The central-execution section 31 controls a sequence ofprocessing from retrieving the scenarios to transmitting the image datato the image delivery server 14. The scenario retrieving section 37accesses the scenario DB 28 via the scenario search section 29 of the AD12 to retrieve the registered scenarios in the scenario DB 28.Specifically, the scenario registration section 37 of the AD 12 requeststhe scenario search section 29 to retrieve corresponding scenarios basedon the apparatus identifier of the image forming apparatus 13 and theuser name of the user who is authorized to use the image formingapparatus 13 as keywords.

Note that the AD 12 stores sets of user information for authenticatingappropriate users. Each set of user information includes a user namethat uniquely identifies a user and a password associated with the username. Before retrieving scenarios, the AD 12 determines whether toauthenticate the user based on the user name and password combinationtransmitted from the image forming apparatus 13. If the authenticationis successful, the scenario search section 29 retrieves the scenariosassociated with the user name and the identifier of the image formingapparatus 13 from the scenario DB 28 and transmits the retrievedscenarios to the image forming apparatus 13.

The plural scenario selection determination section 36 determineswhether the user has selected plural scenarios. If the plural scenarioselection determination section 36 determines that the user has selectedplural scenarios, the plural scenarios may have duplicated deliverydestination information. If the plural scenarios are selected, theduplicated scenario destination identification section 35 determineswhether the plural scenarios include duplicated delivery destinationinformation. The duplicated scenario destination identification section35 requests the scenario destination acquisition section 34 to acquirescenario destinations contained in the selected plural scenarios. Thescenario destination acquisition section 34 extracts deliverydestination information from the plural selected scenarios transmittedfrom the AD 12 and transfers the extracted delivery destinationinformation to the duplicated scenario destination identificationsection 35. The duplicated scenario destination identification section35 compares the obtained plural destination information contained in theplural selected scenarios, and determines whether the plural selectedscenarios include duplicated delivery destination information.

If the scenarios are modified or changed, the scenario registrationrequest section 38 requests the AD 12 to newly register the modifiedscenarios in the scenario DB 28. Accordingly, the AD 12 registers themodified scenarios having modified delivery destination information inorder not to allow the image delivery server 14 to deliver the sameimage data twice to the delivery destinations (i.e., delivery addresses)if there are duplicates of delivery destination information in theplural scenarios.

This process is described with reference to FIGS. 7A to 7C. FIG. 7A is adiagram illustrating a scenario 1 shown in FIG. 5. Note that the “username”, “password”, “model”, and “apparatus identifier” are omitted fromthe description of the scenario. As illustrated in FIG. 7A, the deliveryaddresses of the scenario 1 are “AAA@aaa” and “BBB@bbb”. For example,there is a case where the user retrieves the scenario 1 for the imageforming apparatus 13, and the user deletes the delivery address“BBB@bbb”. FIG. 7B illustrates a modified scenario 1 from which thedelivery address “BBB@bbb” has been deleted. At this moment, themodified scenario 1 from which the delivery address “BBB@bbb” has beendeleted is not registered in the AD 12. Accordingly, if the imageforming apparatus 13 executes the modified scenario 1 from which thedelivery address “BBB@bbb” has been deleted and transmits the image dataassociated with the scenario 1 and the modified scenario 1 from whichthe delivery address “BBB@bbb” has been deleted, the image deliveryserver 14 determines that the scenario 1 is not valid.

To prevent such an incident, the scenario registration request section38 requests the AD 12 to register the modified scenario 1 from which thedelivery address “BBB@bbb” has been deleted. FIG. 7C is a diagramillustrating an example of the scenario DB 28 that has registered themodified scenario 1 from which the delivery address “BBB@bbb” has beendeleted. As illustrated in FIG. 7C, the modified scenario 1 from whichthe delivery address “BBB@bbb” has been deleted is newly registered as a“scenario 1′” in the scenario DB 28. Since the modified scenario 1 inFIG. 7B is transmitted together with the image data associated with thescenario 1 to the image delivery server 14 and the image delivery server14 newly registers the modified scenario 1 as the scenario 1′ that isassociated with the transmitted image data, the image delivery server 14determines that the scenario 1′ is valid.

Referring back to FIG. 6, the document read section 33 optically reads adocument based on the scenario to generate image data. The datatransmission section 32 transmits the image data generated by thedocument read section 33 and the scenario used in the reading of theimage data to the image delivery server 14.

Note that hereinafter, the modified scenario having modified deliverydestination information transmitted together with the image data to theimage delivery server 14 is called an “attached scenario”, the modifiedscenario having the modified delivery destination information andregistered as a new scenario is called a “new scenario”, and theregistered scenario remaining in the scenario DB from which duplicateddelivery destination information is deleted is called an “originalscenario”.

<Image Delivery Server 14>

The image delivery server 14 includes the scenario validity evaluationsection 41 and the image delivery section 42. The scenario validityevaluation section 41 transmits an query to the scenario search section26 of the AD 12 to determine whether the attached scenario received withthe image data from the image forming apparatus 13 is valid. That is,the scenario validity evaluation section 41 transmits the user namecontained in the attached scenario to the scenario search section 29 tosearch for the registered scenarios associated with the user name. Notethat the image delivery server 14 may also transmit the apparatusidentifier in the AD 12.

The scenario search section 29 retrieves the scenarios associated withthe user name from the scenario DB 28 and transmit the retrievedscenarios associated with the user name to the scenario validityevaluation section 41. The scenario validity evaluation section 41evaluates the validity of the attached scenario based on whether theattached scenario is contained in the received scenarios from thescenario search section 29. As described above, since the attachedscenario having modified delivery destination information is transmittedto the image delivery server 14 and the image delivery server 14registers the attached scenario as a new scenario in the scenario DB 28,the scenario validity evaluation section 41 can determine that thescenario (new scenario) identical to the attached scenario is registeredin the scenario DB 28, that is, the scenario validity evaluation section41 determines that the attached scenario received from the image formingapparatus 13 is valid.

Note that the evaluation of the validity of the attached scenario may becarried out in the AD 12 side. In such a case, the scenario validityevaluation section 41 transmits the attached scenario to the scenariosearch section 29 relocated in the AD 12, and the scenario searchsection 29 determines whether the scenario DB 28 stores (registers) ascenario that matches the attached scenario (i.e., whether the attachedscenario matches the new scenario stored in the scenario DB 28).Thereafter, the scenario validity evaluation section 41 receives adetermination result on the validity from the scenario search section 29in the AD 12.

If the attached scenario is determined to be valid, the image deliverysection 42 carries out delivery processing on the image data based onthe delivery type and delivery address contained in the attachedscenario. That is, the image delivery section 42 refers to the deliverysetting in the attached scenario, and delivers the image data to thedelivery address via the registered delivery type such as FTP, ServerMessage Block (SMB), and e-mail.

[Operation Procedure]

<Registration Procedure>

A registration procedure in which a scenario from the SMC 11 isregistered in the AD 12 is described with reference to FIGS. 8A and 8.FIGS. 8A and 8B depict a sequence diagram illustrating an example of aprocedure for registering a scenario regardless of capability of theimage forming apparatus n in the image forming apparatus utilizationsystem 100. Note that a procedure for registering a scenario based onthe capability of the image forming apparatus n is the same as theprocedure for registering the scenario regardless of the capability ofthe image forming apparatus n in the point in which a scenario isautomatically created. Accordingly, the description of the registrationprocedure based on the capability of the image forming apparatus n isthus omitted.

First, the administrator operates the SMC 11 to activate the scannermanagement console. The administrator requests the scenariocentral-control section 21 to create a scenario (S101). The useroperates the mouse and keyboard to press a start key or button forinitiating the creation of the scenario. The scenario central-controlsection 21 receives a request for creating the scenario.

The scenario central-control section 21 requests the capability switchsection 22 to acquire the capability information of all the apparatusesconnected over the network (S102). The capability switch section 22requests the apparatus search section 23 to search an apparatus list forthe image forming apparatuses 13 connected via the network in the imageforming apparatus utilization system 100 (S103).

The apparatus search section 23 searches the apparatus list for theimage forming apparatuses 13 connected over the network in the imageforming apparatus utilization system 100 (S104, S105). In FIGS. 8A and8B, the apparatus search section 23 detects two image formingapparatuses 1 and 2 (i.e., image forming apparatus 13) as a result ofsearching the apparatus list; however, the number of image formingapparatuses 13 detected by the apparatus search section 23 may not belimited to two. The number of image forming apparatuses 13 detected bythe apparatus search section 23 may be one, or two or more. The imageforming apparatuses 1 and 2 detected by the apparatus search section 23transmit their corresponding location information to the apparatussearch section 23. On receiving the corresponding location informationon the image forming apparatuses 1 and 2, the apparatus search section23 generates an apparatus list including the image forming apparatuses 1and 2 whose location information is acquired. Note that the generatedapparatus list includes the corresponding location information such asthe apparatus identifier, the model, MAC address, and IP address.

The apparatus search section 23 reports the generated apparatus listincluding location information on the detected image forming apparatuses1 and 2 connected over the network to the capability switch section 22(S106).

Next, the capability switch section 22 requests the image formingapparatuses 1 and 2 in the image forming apparatus utilization system100 to transmit their corresponding capability information based on thereported apparatus list (S107, S109).

The image forming apparatuses 1 and 2 retrieve their capabilityinformation from their corresponding databases such as MIB2, andtransmit the retrieved capability information to the capability switchsection 22 (S108, S200). The capability switch section 22 thus acquiresthe corresponding capability information of the image formingapparatuses 1 and 2 connected over the network.

The capability switch section 22 reports the acquired capabilityinformation of the image forming apparatuses 1 and 2 to the scenariocentral-control section 21 (S201).

The scenario central-control section 21 displays a list of candidateapparatuses image forming apparatuses 1 and 2 in this case) for creatingscenarios to the administrator (S202). Specifically, the scenariocentral-control section 21 displays a list of the apparatus identifiers,models, and the like corresponding to the image forming apparatuses 1and 2 on the display 80 of the SMC 11. The user clicks on the desiredapparatus identifier or model to display the capability information ofthe image forming apparatus 1 or 2 on the display 80.

The administrator refers to the list of candidate apparatuses forcreating scenarios and their capability information and transmits aninstruction to the scenario central-control section 21 to createscenarios (S203). The instruction includes information on specifying(selecting) one of the image forming apparatus 1 and 2. On receiving theinstruction including the specification of one of the image formingapparatuses 1 and 2, the scenario central-control section 21 displaysthe corresponding capability information of one of the image formingapparatuses 1 and 2 on the display 80 (in this case, it is assumed thatthe image forming apparatus 1 is selected). Accordingly, theadministrator creates a scenario within a capability range of the imageforming apparatus 1.

The administrator can also specify the “reading setting” including the“resolution”, “density”, “color mode”, and “paper size” for reading thedocument. The SMC 11 displays a selectable pull-down menu withassignable values for each of the “resolution”, “density”, “color mode”,and “paper size” based on the administrator's operation, and theadministrator selects a desired one of the value from the pull-down menucorresponding to the “resolution”, “density”, “color mode”, and “papersize” of the “reading setting”. Alternatively, the administrator maydirectly input a desired value for the “reading setting”. Theadministrator also sets values for the “delivery type”, “address”, “username”, and “password”, “model” items. The value ranges for the aboveitems to be registered are known to the administrator.

The scenario central-control section 21 reports information on thescenario creation set by the administrator to the scenario creationsection 25 and requests the scenario creation section 25 to create ascenario (S204). The scenario creation section 25 determines whethernecessary information is registered in each of the items in the scenarioand whether the information contains disabled parameters or characters,converts the scenario in a predetermined format, and transmits theconverted scenario to the scenario central-control section 21 (S205). Inthis process, the scenario central-control section 21 may display theconverted scenario to the administrator to receive the authorization.

The scenario central-control section 21 transmits the converted scenarioto the scenario registration section 26 of the AD 12 and requests thescenario registration section 26 to register the converted scenario(S206). The scenario registration section 26 registers the convertedscenario with the scenario DB 28. The scenario is thus created andregistered in the AD 12.

Subsequently, automatic scenario creation, which is also acharacteristic of the embodiment, is described. The scanner managementconsole includes the computer program 79 that automatically createsscenarios, so that the SMC 11 automatically executes the following stepssubsequent to step S205.

The scenario central-control section 21 requests the scenarioauto-creation section 24 to automatically create a scenario for an imageforming apparatus n whose scenario has not been created by theadministrator (S207). In this process, the scenario central-controlsection 21 reports the scenario for the image forming apparatus 1 andthe apparatus identifier of the image forming apparatus 1, and alsoreports the apparatus identifier of the image forming apparatus n to thescenario auto-creation section 24. In addition, the scenariocentral-control section 21 transmits the capability information of eachof the image forming apparatuses 13 to the scenario auto-creationsection 24.

The scenario auto-creation section 24 requests the scenario creationsection 25 to create a scenario corresponding to the image formingapparatus n (S208). In this process, the scenario auto-creation section24 transfers the scenario for the image forming apparatus 1, and theapparatus identifier of the image forming apparatus 1, and the apparatusidentifier of the image forming apparatus n to the scenario creationsection 25.

The scenario creation section 25 creates a scenario corresponding to theimage forming apparatus n instructed (specified) by the scenarioauto-creation section 24 (S209). Specifically, the scenarioauto-creation section 24 generates a scenario for the image formingapparatus n that is identical to the scenario for the image formingapparatus 1, except that the scenario for the image forming apparatus nincludes the apparatus identifier differing from that of the imageforming apparatus 1. The scenario creation section 25 reports thecreated scenario corresponding to the image forming apparatus n to thescenario auto-creation section 24.

The scenario auto-creation section 24 transmits the created scenariocorresponding to the image forming apparatus n to the registrationsection 26 (S300). Accordingly, the scenario registration section 26registers the scenario for the image forming apparatus n, which is thesame scenario as that for the image forming apparatus 1.

<Deleting Duplicated Delivery Destination Information>

Next, a procedure of deleting duplicated delivery destinationinformation is described. FIGS. 9A and 9B depict a sequence diagramillustrating an example of a procedure in which scenarios are executedwhile preventing duplicated transmission of image data to same deliveryaddresses (duplicated delivery destination information) when thescenarios have the same delivery addresses.

First, the user operates the operations panel 57 of the image formingapparatus 13 to retrieve scenarios from the AD 12 (S1). Note that theuser has already logged into the image forming apparatus 13 by inputtinghis or her user name and password combination via the operations panel57 or causing the image forming apparatus 13 to read his or her IC card.

The central-execution section 31 receives a result of the operation andrequests the scenario retrieving section 37 to retrieve scenarios (S2).Note that the central-execution section 31 may receive a login operationof the user as a scenario retrieving request. The central-executionsection 31 transfers the user name and password combination to thescenario retrieving section 37.

The scenario retrieving section 37 further transfers the user name andpassword combination to the AD 12 to authenticate the user, and alsotransfers the apparatus identifier of the image forming apparatus 13 tothe AD 12 in order to request the scenario search section 29 to searchfor the scenarios authorized for the user (S3). The scenario searchsection 29 authenticates the user based on whether the transferred username and password combination exists in the sets of user informationstored in the AD 12. If the authentication is successful, the scenariosearch section 29 searches the scenario DB 28 using the “user name” andthe “identifier” of the image forming apparatus 13 as keywords (S4), andretrieves all the scenarios associated with the “user name” and the“identifier” of the image forming apparatus 13 from the scenario DB 28(S5).

The scenario search section 29 transmits all the retrieved scenarios(scenario group) associated with the “user name” and the “identifier” ofthe image forming apparatus 13 to the scenario retrieving section 37(S6). The scenario retrieving section 37 transfers all the retrievedscenarios (scenario group) associated with the “user name” and the“identifier” of the image forming apparatus 13 to the central-executionsection 31 (S7).

The central-execution section 31 displays a list of the retrievedscenarios (scenario group) associated with the “user name” and the“identifier” of the image forming apparatus 13 on the operations panel57 (S8). The list of the retrieved scenarios (scenario group) mayhereinafter be called a “scenario list”. FIG. 10 is a diagramillustrating an example of a scenario selection screen 301 displayed onthe operations panel 57. As illustrated in FIG. 10, the scenarioselection screen 301 displays a message “which scenario would you liketo select?”, a scenario list 302, and an “OK” button 302.

The scenario list 302 includes a scenario 1, a scenario 2, and ascenario 3 each composed of “scenario+number”, but alternatively, thecentral-execution section 31 may display the scenario list 302 havingmore straightforward names registered in advance by the user. When theuser presses a not-shown “details” button in the scenario list 302, thedetails of each of the scenarios are displayed on the operations panel57.

After having looked through the details of each of the scenarios, theuser selects one of the scenarios from the scenario list 302. Theoperations panel 57 then highlights the selected one of the scenarios inthe scenario list 302. Subsequently, when the user selects the samescenario in the scenario list 302, the operations panel 57 cancels thehighlight of the selected scenario; however, when the user selects ascenario different from the selected one, the operations panel 57highlights two selected scenarios in the scenario list 302. In thisembodiment, it is assumed that plural scenarios are selected in thescenario list 302. Note that if one scenario is allowed to haveduplicated delivery destination information registered in it, theprocedure of deleting duplicated delivery destinations described in thisembodiment may be applied to such a case without the user's selectingplural scenarios in the scenario list 302.

If the user presses the “OK” button while displaying highlightedscenarios in the scenario list 302, the central-execution section 31receives an execution request for executing the selected scenarios (S9).On receiving the execution request, the central-execution section 31specifies the selected scenarios and stores these in the HDD or thelike. Since each of the scenarios has a corresponding number, thecentral-execution section 31 specifies the selected scenario by thecorresponding number.

Referring back to FIGS. 9A and 9B, the central-execution section 31requests the duplicated scenario destination identification section 36to determine whether plural scenarios have been selected (S10). Theplural scenario selection determination section 36 determines whetherthe user has selected plural scenarios, and transmits an obtained resultto the central-execution section 31 (S11). Note that there may be somemethods for determining whether the user has selected plural scenarios.For example, the plural scenario selection determination section 36 maydetermine whether the user has selected plural scenarios based onwhether plural different scenarios' sequential numbers exist in thescenarios received by the central-execution section 31. Note that theobtained result in this embodiment is “Yes”.

If the plural scenarios are selected (i.e., the obtained result is“Yes”), the central-execution section 31 queries the duplicated scenariodestination identification section 35 about the duplicated deliverydestination information among the plural scenarios (S12). The duplicatedscenario destination identification section 35 requests the scenariodestination acquisition section 34 to acquire or extract the deliverydestination information from the plural scenarios (S13). The scenariodestination acquisition section 34 extracts the delivery destinationinformation from each of the plural selected scenarios and transfers theextracted delivery destination information to the duplicated scenariodestination identification section 35 (S14). This process is describedwith reference to FIGS. 7A to 7C.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a set of selected pluralscenarios. FIG. 11 illustrates a case where the user has selected threescenarios (i.e., scenarios 1 to 3). The scenario destination acquisitionsection 34 extracts corresponding delivery destination information fromthe selected scenarios 1 to 3 and transfers the corresponding extracteddelivery destination information to the duplicated scenario destinationidentification section 35. In comparing the delivery destinationinformation (i.e., address) of the scenario 1 with that of the scenario2, the address “BBB@bbb” is a duplicated address contained in the twoscenarios 1 and 2. Accordingly, the duplicated scenario destinationidentification section 35 identifies the address “BBB@bbb” as theduplicated address (duplicated delivery destination information). Theduplicated scenario destination identification section 35 transfers allthe selected scenarios that include the duplicated delivery destinationinformation (obtained as a result of the query) to the central-executionsection 31 (S15).

The central-execution section 31 creates new scenarios or modifies thescenarios including the duplicated delivery destination information suchthat the image delivery server 14 transmits image data once to theaddress (duplicated address) in question, and requests the scenarioregistration request section 38 to register the new or modifiedscenarios with the AD 12 (S16).

As noted below, there are different methods by which the image formingapparatus 13 carries out processing on the scenarios that includeduplicated addresses of the duplicated delivery destination informationsuch that the image delivery server 14 transmits image data once to theduplicated address.

(C1) The duplicated delivery destination information (i.e., duplicatedaddress) is retained in one of the scenarios each having duplicatedaddresses, and removed from the rest of the scenarios. Referring to FIG.11 to describe the method (C1), the duplicated address “BBB@bbb” isretained in the scenario 1, and removed from the scenario 2.

FIG. 12A is a diagram illustrating an example of scenarios one of whichis modified based on the method (C1). As illustrated in FIG. 12A, sincethe duplicated address “BBB@bbb” is removed from the scenario 2, thereare no more scenarios that include the duplicated delivery destinationinformation (duplicated addresses). Note that alternatively, theduplicated address “BBB@bbb” may be retained in the scenario 2, and beremoved from the scenario 1.

(C2) One of the scenarios each having duplicated addresses is retainedin the scenarios subject to image processing carried out by the imageforming apparatus 13 and the other(s) also having the duplicatedaddress(es) is deleted from the scenarios subject to image processingcarried out by the image forming apparatus 13. Referring to FIG. 11 todescribe the method (C2), the scenario 1 having the duplicated address“BBB@bbb” is retained in the scenarios subject to image processingcarried out by the image forming apparatus 13, and the scenario 2 alsohaving the duplicated address “BBB@bbb” is deleted from the scenariossubject to image processing carried out by the image forming apparatus13. In this case, the image data are not delivered to the address“CCC@ccc” originally contained in the scenario 2 (see scenario 2 in FIG.11), however, the image data are not transmitted twice to the duplicatedaddress “BBB@bbb”.

FIG. 12B is a diagram illustrating an example of scenarios obtainedbased on the method (C2). As illustrated in FIG. 12B, since the scenario2 is deleted from the scenarios subject to image processing carried outby the image forming apparatus 13, there are no more scenarios thatinclude the duplicated delivery destination information (duplicatedaddresses). Note that in order to transmit the image data to the address“CCC@ccc” contained in the deleted scenario 2, the image formingapparatus 13 may remove the scenario 2 from the scenarios subject toimage processing carried out by the image forming apparatus 13, providedthat the scenario 2 alone contains a particular address that is notpresent in the rest of the scenarios.

(C3) New scenarios each with one address (duplicated address) arecreated based on the scenarios that include the duplicated addresses andthe new scenarios are added to the scenarios subject to image processing(new set of scenario) carried out by the image forming apparatus 13.Then, one of the scenarios that includes the duplicated addresses isdeleted from the new set of the scenarios subject to image processingcarried out by the image forming apparatus 13. Referring to FIG. 11 andFIG. 12C to describe the method (C3), a new scenario 1-1 having theaddress “AAA@aaa” (see scenario 1-1 in FIG. 12C) and another newscenario 1-2 having the address “BBB@bbb” (not shown) are created basedon the original scenario 1 (see scenario 1 in FIG. 11), and a newscenario 2-1 having the address “CCC@ccc” (see scenario 2-1 in FIG. 12C)and another new scenario 2-2 having the address “BBB@bbb” (see scenario2-2 in FIG. 12C) are created based on the original scenario 2 (seescenario 2 in FIG. 11). Thereafter, one of the scenarios 1-2 and 2-2each having the duplicated address (in this case “BBB@bbb”) is removedfrom the new set of the scenarios subject to image processing carriedout by the image forming apparatus 13 (not-shown scenario 1-2 is removedin this case). Note that the original scenarios based on which the abovenew scenarios are created are also removed form the new set of thescenarios subject to image processing (i.e., original scenarios 1 and 2in FIG. 11 in this case).

FIG. 12C is a diagram illustrating an example of scenarios obtainedbased on the method (C3). As illustrated in 12C, the new set of thescenarios obtained based on the method (C3) includes the scenario 1-1,the scenario 2-1, the scenario 3, and the scenario 2-2. That is, the newscenario 1-2 having the duplicated address “BBB@bbb” has been removedfrom the newly created scenarios 1-1, 1-2, 2-1, and 2-2 described above.Since the new scenario 1-2 having the duplicated address “BBB@bbb” isremoved from the newly created scenarios 1-1, 1-2, 2-1, and 2-2, thereare no more duplicated addresses (duplicated delivery destinationinformation) in the new scenarios obtained based on the method (C3). Inthe method (C3), scenarios having the same delivery addresses but havingdifferent reading settings are temporarily created, which makes iteasier for the user to select desired scenarios. For example, the usermay leave one of the scenarios that has the highest resolution or thathas the full-color mode in the reading setting.

Referring back to FIGS. 9A and 9B, the scenario registration requestsection 38 registers the new scenarios having no duplicated deliverydestination information (i.e., addresses) in the AD 12 (S16). Except forthe examples of the scenarios illustrated in FIG. 12B, the new scenariosor the modified scenarios are not consistent with the original scenariosregistered in the AD 12. Accordingly, the delivery server 14 will not beable to determine whether the new scenarios are valid unless those areregistered in the AD 12.

The central-execution section 31 requests the scenario registrationrequest section 38 to register the new scenarios or modified scenariosin the AD 12. Note that the new scenarios or modified scenarios aresubject to be registered in the AD 12 provided that they have not beenregistered in the AD 12. That is, the modified scenario 2′ illustratedin FIG. 12A, and the new scenarios 1-1, 2-1, and 2-2 illustrated in FIG.12C are subject to be registered in the AD 12. Note that with theexamples of the scenarios illustrated in FIG. 12B, one of the scenariosis merely deleted by the above method (C2), so that there are nomodified or new scenarios to be registered in the AD 12.

The scenario registration request section 38 specifies the new scenariosand modified scenarios having no duplicated delivery destinationinformation to be registered in the AD 12. The scenario registrationrequest section 38 transfers new scenarios and modified scenarios havingno duplicated delivery destination information to the scenarioregistration section 26 of the AD 12 and requests the scenarioregistration section 26 to register the transferred scenarios (S17).

The Scenario Registration Section 26 newly registers the receivedscenarios in the scenario DB 28 (S18). FIG. 13 is a diagram illustratingan example of the scenario DB 28 before registering the modifiedscenario and after registering the modified scenario based on the method(C1). The scenario DB 28 after registering the modified scenarioincludes a newly registered scenario 2′ that is obtained by deleting theaddress “BBB@bbb” from the original scenario 2, in addition to theoriginal scenarios 1 through 3. FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating anexample of the scenario DB 28 before registering the new scenarios andafter registering the new scenarios based on the method (C3). Asillustrated in FIG. 14, the scenario DB 28 after registering the newscenarios includes newly registered scenarios 1-1 (the first row in FIG.12C), 2-1 (the second row in FIG. 12C), and 2-2 (the fourth row in FIG.12C), in addition to the original scenarios 1 through 3.

That is, the number of scenarios registered in the scenario DB 28 isincreased by the number of newly registered scenarios. Alternatively,the new scenarios or modified scenarios may overwrite the originalscenarios. Further, the central-execution section 31 switches betweenwhether to newly register the new scenarios or modified scenarios withthe scenario DB 28 or whether to allow the new scenarios or modifiedscenarios to overwrite the original scenarios in the scenario DB basedon the user's selection.

Referring back to FIGS. 9A and 9B, the scenario registration section 26acquires the registered results from the scenario DB 28 (S19), andtransfers the acquired registered results to the scenario registrationrequest section 38 (S20). The scenario registration request section 38transfers the received registered results to the central-executionsection 31 (S21).

Next, the central-execution section 31 requests the document readsection 33 to read a document based on the new scenarios or modifiedscenarios having no duplicated delivery destination information (i.e.,registered results) (S22). The document read section 33 sets the readingsetting of the scenario as a parameter to operate the scanner 69 to readthe document to generate image data. The document read section 33transfers the image data to the central-execution section 31 (S23).Since the plural scenarios are selected, the document read section 33reads the document based on each of the scenarios to generate pluralimage data, and transfers the generated plural image data to thecentral-execution section 31.

The central-execution section 31 transfers the generated plural imagedata together with the selected plural scenarios based on which thedocument has been read to the data transmission section 32 (S24). Thedata transmission section 32 transfers the generated plural image datatogether with the selected plural scenarios based on which the documenthas been read to the image delivery section 42 of the image deliveryserver 14 (S25).

The image delivery section 42 requests the scenario validity evaluationsection 41 to evaluate the validity of the attached scenarios (S26). Theimage delivery section 42 transfers the attached scenarios to thescenario validity evaluation section 41.

The scenario validity evaluation section 41 transmits the user namescontained in the attached scenarios to the scenario search section 29 tosearch for the registered scenarios associated with the respective usernames (S27). The scenario search section 29 searches the scenario DB 28for the scenarios associated with the respective user names (S28). Thescenario search section 29 acquires the retrieved scenarios associatedwith the user names contained in the scenarios (S30) and transfers allthe retrieved scenarios associated with the user names to the scenariovalidity evaluation section 41 (S30).

The scenario validity evaluation section 41 determines whether thescenarios attached to the transferred image data match the scenariostransferred from the scenario search section 29, and transmits thedetermined result to the image delivery section 42 (S31). Note thatsince only the scenarios having no duplicated delivery destinationinformation are registered in the scenario DB 28, the determined resultin this case is “OK”.

The image delivery section 42 transmits the received result indicatingthat the reception of the image data delivery has normally beencompleted to the data transmission section 32 of the image formingapparatus 13 (S32). The data transmission section 32 transfers thereceived result indicating that the reception of the image data deliveryhas normally been completed to the central-execution section 31 (S33).Note that after step S29, the image delivery section 42 delivers theimage data based on each of the delivery settings in the scenarios.

As described above, in the image forming apparatus utilization system100 according to the first embodiment, if plural scenarios are selected,duplicated delivery destination information are deleted from the pluralscenarios by one of the above-described methods. Accordingly, althoughthe document is read based on the different reading conditions togenerate image data, the image data may be prevented from beingtransmitted two or more times to the same address. Further, sincecomputers to which the image data are delivered may be prevented fromreceiving the image data two or more times, storage regions of suchcomputers may have an increase in their available capacities. Moreover,the transmission cost may also be reduced.

Second Embodiment

An image forming apparatus utilization system 100 according to a secondembodiment capable of modifying scenarios such that the image deliveryserver 14 transmits image data once to the duplicated addresses of thedelivery destination information is specifically described.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating an example of functionalcomponents of the image forming apparatus utilization system 100according to the second embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 15,components identical to those of FIG. 6 are provided with the samereference numerals and the descriptions thereof are omitted. In theimage forming apparatus utilization system 100 according to the secondembodiment, the image forming apparatus 13 includes an address deletingsection 311 (e.g., scenario processing unit). The address deletingsection 311 is configured to delete duplicated delivery destinationinformation in the plural scenarios. Accordingly, in the secondembodiment, the specific component (element) for carrying out the methodC1 is explicitly described. The address deleting section 311 retains theduplicated delivery destination information (i.e., duplicated address)in one of the scenarios having duplicated addresses, and deletes it fromthe rest of the scenarios.

FIGS. 16A and 16B depict a sequence diagram illustrating an example of aprocedure in which one of duplicated delivery destination informationcontained in plural scenarios is deleted and the validity of the deleteddelivery destination information is evaluated. Note that in FIGS. 16Aand 16B, components identical to those of FIGS. 9A and 9B are providedwith the same reference numerals and the descriptions thereof areomitted. Note that steps S1 through S15 of the second embodimentillustrated in FIGS. 16A and 16B are identical to those of the firstembodiment.

As illustrated in the second embodiment, the duplicated scenariodestination identification section 35 transfers all the selectedscenarios that include the duplicated delivery destination information(obtained as a result of the query) to the central-execution section 31(S15) as illustrated in FIGS. 16A and 16B.

The central-execution section 31 requests the address deleting section311 to delete the duplicated delivery destination information (S101).The address deleting section 311 acquires all the duplicated deliverydestination information from the central-execution section 31, anddeletes the duplicated delivery destination information based on thefollowing procedure:

(i) The address deleting section 311 specifies scenarios havingduplicated delivery destination information. Referring back to FIG. 11as an example, the address deleting section 311 specifies the scenarios1 and 2.

(ii) The address deleting section 311 selects one of the specifiedscenarios having duplicated delivery destination information in order toleave the duplicated delivery destination information in the selectedscenario alone. There may be several methods to select one of thespecified scenarios having duplicated delivery destination information.For example, the selection may be determined based on the scenariosthemselves, based on the scenarios' sequential numbers, or the order ofscenario selection. When the selection of the scenario is determinedbased on the scenarios themselves, the address deleting section 311selects one of the specified scenarios in which the duplicated deliverydestination information is to be retained based on the resolution (highor low resolution), or the color mode for reading a document (full coloror monochrome). Such methods to select one of the scenarios areregistered in advance with the address deleting section 311. Referringstill to FIG. 11 as the example, it is assumed that the scenario 1 isselected for one of the scenarios that only includes the duplicateddelivery destination information.

(iii) The address deleting section 311 deletes the duplicated deliverydestination information from the rest of the specified scenarios havingduplicated delivery destination information excluding only the selectedone that is allowed to include the duplicated delivery destinationinformation. Referring to FIG. 11, the address deleting section 311deletes the address “BBB@bbb” from the scenario 2. Accordingly, thescenario 2 includes the address “CCC@aaa” alone as illustrated in FIG.12A.

The address deleting section 311 reports the completion of deleting theabove address to the central-execution section 31 (S102).

Subsequent processing (i.e., steps) is the same as that described in thefirst embodiment, and the description thereof is thus omitted. Thecentral-execution section 31 requests the scenario DB 28 to newlyregister the modified scenario (s) (e.g., the scenario 2 in the exampleof FIG. 11) from which the duplicated delivery destination information(e.g., address “BBB@bbb”) has been deleted (S16). The scenarioregistration request section 38 transfers the modified scenario 2illustrated as the “scenario 2′” in FIG. 12A to the scenarioregistration section 2 of the AD 12 and requests the scenarioregistration section 26 to register the transferred modified scenario 2(i.e., scenario 2′) (S17). The scenario DB 28 registers the scenarios 1through 3, and the scenario 2′ as illustrated in FIG. 13.

As described above, in the image forming apparatus utilization system100 according to the second embodiment, if plural scenarios areselected, duplicated delivery destination information are deleted fromthe plural scenarios by the above-described method. Accordingly,although the document is read based on the different reading conditionsto generate image data, the image data may be prevented from beingtransmitted two or more times to the same address. Further, sincecomputers to which the image data are delivered may be prevented fromreceiving the image data two or more times, storage regions of suchcomputers may have an increase in their available capacities. Moreover,the transmission cost may also be reduced.

Third Embodiment

An image forming apparatus utilization system 100 according to a thirdembodiment capable of causing the image delivery server 14 to transmitimage data once to the duplicated address of the delivery destinationinformation without having to register new scenarios or modifiedscenarios by utilizing the order of scenario selection is specificallydescribed.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating an example of functionalcomponents of the image forming apparatus utilization system 100according to the third embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 17, componentsidentical to those of FIG. 6 are provided with the same referencenumerals and the descriptions thereof are omitted. In the image formingapparatus utilization system 100 according to the third embodiment, theimage forming apparatus 13 includes a scenario selection orderdetermination section 312 (scenario selection order determination unit).The scenario selection order determination section 312 identifies aselected order of scenarios when the user has selected plural scenarios.As illustrated in FIG. 10, the user sequentially selects the scenariosfrom the scenario selection screen 301 displayed on the operations panel57. The central-execution section 31 detects the selected content. Thescenario selection order determination section 312 acquires a scenario'ssequential number whenever the user selects one of the scenarios andstores the scenario in the RAM or the HDD in the order of selection.

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an example of scenarios' sequentialnumbers recorded by the scenario selection order determination section312 that are shown in a selected order. The scenarios' sequentialnumbers are associated with their selected order and stored in thescenario selection order determination section 312. The scenarioselection order determination section 312 reports selected order of theplural scenarios to the central-execution section 31, and thecentral-execution section 31 requests the document read section 33 toread the one of the scenarios having the duplicated delivery destinationinformation that has been selected first.

If the scenario having the duplicated delivery destination informationis selected in that manner, the scenario need not be modified.Accordingly, the scenario registration section 26 does not need to newlyregister the modified scenario in the scenario DB 28.

FIGS. 19A and 19B depict a sequence diagram illustrating an example of aprocedure in which the image forming apparatus 13 specifies a firstscenario in the order of selection and executes the specified scenario.Note that in FIGS. 19A and 19B, components identical to those of FIGS.9A and 9B are provided with the same reference numerals and thedescriptions thereof are omitted. Note that steps S1 through S15 of thethird embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 19A and 19B are identical to thoseof the first and second embodiments. The scenario selection orderdetermination section 312 stores the selected order of the scenariosillustrated in FIG. 18 in steps S1 through S15, in particular, in stepS9.

As illustrated in the first and the second embodiments, the duplicatedscenario destination identification section 35 transfers all theselected scenarios that include the duplicated delivery destinationinformation (obtained as a result of the query) to the central-executionsection 31 (S15) as illustrated in FIGS. 19A and 19B.

The central-execution section 31 requests the scenario selection orderdetermination section 312 to provide the order of scenario selection(S201). The scenario selection order determination section 312 reportsthe order of scenario selection for the selected scenarios to thecentral-execution section 31 (S202).

Note that since the order of scenario selection is reported for each ofthe selected scenarios (i.e., scenarios 1 through 3 in FIG. 10), theorder of scenario selection for the scenario that includes no duplicateddelivery destination information (i.e., the scenario 3 in FIG. 10) isalso reported. Thus, the central-execution section 31 needs to specifythe scenario having duplicated delivery destination information (in thiscase scenario 3) among the scenarios (1 through 3) whose order ofscenario selection is reported from the duplicated scenario destinationidentification section 35. Referring back to the example in FIG. 11,since the duplicated delivery destination information is the address“BBB@bbb”, the central-execution section 31 specifies the scenario 1 andscenario 2 each having the address “BBB@bbb”.

The central-execution section 31 determines which one of the scenario 1and the scenario 2 is selected first based on the selected order ofscenario selection reported from the scenario selection orderdetermination section 312. In the example in FIG. 18, since the scenario1 is selected first, the central-execution section 31 determines thescenario 1 as the first scenario that has been selected from thescenarios 1 and 3.

Thus, the central-execution section 31 determines not to read thedocument based on the scenario 2. The central-execution section 31 thenrequests the document read section 33 to read the document based on thescenario 1 and the scenario 3 as illustrated in FIGS. 19A and 19B (S22).

Note that as can be clear from the example of FIGS. 19A and 19B, stepsS16 to S21 of the first embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 9A and 9B orthose of the second embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 16A and 16B are notexecuted in the third embodiment. Since neither the scenario 1 nor thescenario 3 are modified in the third embodiment, the delivery server 14is able to determine whether the attached scenarios 1 and 3 are validwithout having to newly register the scenario 1 and the scenario 3 inthe scenario DB 28.

As described above, in the image forming apparatus utilization system100 according to the third embodiment, if plural scenarios are selected,only one of the scenarios having the duplicated delivery destinationinformation is selected in the order of scenario selection. Accordingly,although the document is read based on the different reading conditionsto generate image data, the image data may be prevented from beingtransmitted two or more times to the same address. Further, sincecomputers to which the image data are delivered may be prevented fromreceiving the image data two or more times, storage regions of suchcomputers may have an increase in their available capacities. Since theimage data are transmitted based on the delivery setting of the scenariothat has been selected first, the user can easily identify which one ofthe scenario's delivery settings is used for reading the document.Moreover, the transmission cost may also be reduced. Further, since thescenario DB 28 does not need to register any other scenarios (i.e., newor modified scenarios), the available capacity of the scenario DB 28 mayalso be increased.

Fourth Embodiment

An image forming apparatus utilization system 100 according to a fourthembodiment capable of causing the image delivery server 14 to transmitimage data once to the duplicated address of the delivery destinationinformation without having to register new scenarios or modifiedscenarios by utilizing the cost of scenario execution is specificallydescribed.

FIG. 20 is a block diagram illustrating an example of functionalcomponents of the image forming apparatus utilization system 100according to the fourth embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 20,components identical to those of FIG. 6 are provided with the samereference numerals and the descriptions thereof are omitted. In theimage forming apparatus utilization system 100 according to the fourthembodiment, the image forming apparatus 13 includes a scenario costcomparison section 313 (scenario cost computation unit). The scenariocost comparison section 313 compares the costs of transmitting imagedata (i.e., executing the scenarios) based on the respective readingsettings and delivery settings of the scenarios. In this case, the costof transmitting image data includes a delivery cost on the basis of adelivery method (delivery type) and an image cost on the basis of thesize of an image. In the fourth embodiment, the delivery costs areinitially compared among the scenarios. However, if the scenario is notable to be selected based on the comparison results of the deliverycosts, the image costs are then compared. Note that the above-describedcomparing method is only an example. Various methods may be used forcomparing the costs of transmitting image data. For example, for each ofthe scenarios, weights may be are assigned to the delivery cost and theimage cost, and overall costs are compared between the scenarios. Ortemporal cost may be used for that comparison.

For example, the delivery cost includes the following relationship.

(1-1) Delivery cost: Low/Delivery type: SMB

(1-2) Delivery cost: Moderate/Delivery type: E-mail, FTP

(1-3) Delivery cost: High/Delivery type: FAX The image cost includes thefollowing relationship.

(2-1) Image cost: (Very low)/Color mode: Monochrome*Resolution: Low

(2-2) Image cost: (Low)/Color mode: Monochrome*Resolution: Moderate

(2-3) Image cost: (Relatively low)/Color mode: Monochrome*Resolution:High

(2-4) Image cost: (Relatively high)/Color mode: Full-color*Resolution:Low

(2-5) Image cost: (High)/Color mode: Full-color*Resolution: Moderate

(2-6) Image cost: (Very high)/Color mode: Full-color*Resolution: High

The scenario cost comparison section 313 refers to the above-describedtable to assign cost ratings to the plural scenarios in ascending orderof cost (i.e., from very low to very high), and reports thecorresponding cost ratings assigned to the scenarios to thecentral-execution section 31. Note that the above-described table may bestored in advance in the HDD 56 or the like of the image formingapparatus 13. The central-execution section 31 requests the documentread section 33 to execute the scenario having the lowest cost ratingselected from the scenarios having the duplicated delivery destinationinformation. If the scenario having the duplicated delivery destinationinformation is selected in that manner, the scenario need not bemodified. Accordingly, the scenario registration section 26 need notnewly register the modified scenario with the scenario DB 28.

FIGS. 21A and 21B depict a sequence diagram illustrating an example of aprocedure in which the image forming apparatus 13 specifies a scenariothat has the lowest cost rating and executes the specified scenario.Note that in FIGS. 21A and 21B, components identical to those of FIGS.9A and 9B are provided with the same reference numerals and thedescriptions thereof are omitted. Note that steps S1 through S15 of thefourth embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 21A and 21B are identical tothose of the first to the third embodiments. As illustrated in the firstto the third embodiments, the duplicated scenario destinationidentification section 35 transfers all the selected scenarios thatinclude the duplicated delivery destination information (obtained as aresult of the query) to the central-execution section 31 (S15) asillustrated in FIGS. 21A and 21B.

The central-execution section 31 requests the scenario cost comparisonsection 313 to provide the cost ratings of scenarios in ascending orderof cost (S301). The scenario cost comparison section 313 refers to theabove-described table to assign corresponding cost ratings to the pluralscenarios in ascending order of cost (i.e., from very low to very high),and reports the corresponding cost ratings assigned to the scenarios tothe central-execution section 31 (S302). Note that the scenario costcomparison section 313 assigns the corresponding cost ratings to all thescenarios (i.e., scenarios 1 through 3 in FIG. 11) regardless of theirhaving or not having the duplicated delivery destination information.For example, the cost ratings ascend in the order of the scenarios 1; 2,and 3.

The central-execution section 31 needs to specify the scenario havingduplicated delivery destination information among the scenarios whosecost ratings are reported from the duplicated scenario destinationidentification section 35. Referring back to the example in FIG. 11,since the duplicated delivery destination information is the address“BBB@bbb”, the central-execution section 31 specifies the scenario 1 andthe scenario 2 as having the address “BBB@bbb”.

The central-execution section 31 determines which one of the scenario 1and the scenario 2 is selected first based on the corresponding costratings of the scenarios reported from the scenario cost comparisonsection 313. In this case, it is assumed that the scenario 1 has thelowest cost rating, so that the central-execution section 31 removes thescenario 2 from the scenarios 1 through 3 that are subject to execution.

The central-execution section 31 then requests the document read section33 to read the document based on the scenario 1 and the scenario 3 asillustrated in FIGS. 21A and 21B (S22).

Note that as can be clear from the example of FIGS. 21A and 21B, stepsS16 to S21 of the first embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 9A and 9B orthose of the second embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 16A and 16B are notexecuted in the fourth embodiment. Since neither the scenario 1 nor thescenario 3 is modified in the fourth embodiment, the delivery server 14is able to determine whether the attached scenarios 1 and 3 are validwithout having to newly register the scenario 1 and the scenario 3 inthe scenario DB 28.

As described above, in the image forming apparatus utilization system100 according to the fourth embodiment, if plural scenarios areselected, one of the scenarios having the duplicated deliverydestination information is selected based on the cost ratings of thescenarios. Accordingly, although the document is read based on thedifferent reading conditions to generate image data, the image data maybe prevented from being transmitted two or more times to the sameaddress. Further, since computers to which the image data are deliveredmay be prevented from receiving the image data two or more times,storage regions of such computers may have an increase in theiravailable capacities. Moreover, the transmission cost may also bereduced in comparison to the above-described other embodiments.Furthermore, since the scenario DB 28 does not need to register anyother scenarios (i.e., new or modified scenarios), the availablecapacity of the scenario DB 28 may also be increased.

Fifth Embodiment

In the image forming apparatus utilization system 100 according to thefirst to fourth embodiments, the image forming apparatus 13 deletes theduplicated delivery destination information or selects the scenario tobe executed. An image forming apparatus utilization system 100 accordingto a fifth embodiment is capable of allowing the user to select thescenario to be executed.

FIG. 22 is a block diagram illustrating an example of functionalcomponents of the image forming apparatus utilization system 100according to the fifth embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 22, componentsidentical to those of FIG. 6 are provided with the same referencenumerals and the descriptions thereof are omitted. In the image formingapparatus utilization system 100 according to the fifth embodiment, theimage forming apparatus 13 includes a scenario selection contenttransmission section 314 (scenario selection content reception unit).The scenario selection content transmission section 314 displays a listof scenarios having duplicated delivery destination information on theoperations panel 57 and receives the scenario selected by the user. Inthe fifth embodiment, the usability of the image forming apparatusutilization system 100 for the user is much improved because the userselects which scenario (having delivery destination information) he orshe would like to execute.

FIGS. 23A and 23B depict a sequence diagram illustrating an example of aprocedure in which a user selects a scenario that includes duplicateddelivery destination information. Note that in FIGS. 23A and 23B,components identical to those of FIGS. 9A and 9B are provided with thesame reference numerals and the descriptions thereof are omitted. Notethat steps S1 through S15 of the fifth embodiment illustrated in FIGS.23A and 23B are identical to those of the first to fourth embodiments.As illustrated in the first to the fourth embodiments, the duplicatedscenario destination identification section 35 transfers all theselected scenarios that include the duplicated delivery destinationinformation (obtained as a result of the query) to the central-executionsection 31 (S15) as illustrated in FIGS. 23A and 23B.

The central-execution section 31 requests the scenario selection contenttransmission section 314 to report the selected result of the scenariodetermined by the user (S401). The central-execution section 31specifies the scenarios having duplicated delivery destinationinformation reported by the duplicated scenario destinationidentification section 35. Referring back to the example in FIG. 11,since the duplicated delivery destination information is the address“BBB@bbb”, the central-execution section 31 specifies the scenario 1 andthe scenario 2 having the address “BBB@bbb”. The central-executionsection 31 reports the scenario 1 and the scenario 2 having theduplicated delivery destination information to the scenario selectioncontent transmission section 314.

The scenario selection content transmission section 314 displays a listof the scenarios reported by the central-execution section 31 on theoperations panel 57 so that the user can select a desired one of thescenarios (S402). FIG. 24 is a diagram illustrating an example of ascreen 401 displaying a list of scenarios on the operations panel 57. Asillustrated in FIG. 24, the scenario selection screen 401 displays amessage 402 “the following scenarios have the duplicated address“XXX@xxx”. Select a desired scenario you would like to execute”, ascenario list 403, and an “OK” button 404. For example, with this screen401, the user may press a not-shown “detail button” to check thedelivery setting of each of the scenarios. When the user selects one ofthe scenarios from the scenario list 403, the scenario selection contenttransmission section 314 receives the selected scenario (S403). Thescenario selection content transmission section 314 reports the receivedscenario (i.e., selected result determined by the user) to thecentral-execution section 31 (S404).

The central-execution section 31 selects the scenario 1 to be executedfrom the list of scenario 1 and scenario 2 based on the selected resultreported by the scenario selection content transmission section 314.Thus, the central-execution section 31 determines not to read thedocument based on the scenario 2. The central-execution section 31 thenrequests the document read section 33 to read the document based on thescenario 1 and the scenario 3 as illustrated in FIGS. 23A and 238 (S22).

Note that as can be clear from the example of FIGS. 23A and 23B, stepsS16 to S21 of the first embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 9A and 9B orthose of the second embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 16A and 16B are notexecuted in the fifth embodiment. Since neither the scenario 1 nor thescenario 3 are modified in the fifth embodiment, the delivery server 14is able to determine whether the attached scenarios 1 and 3 are validwithout having to newly register the scenario 1 and the scenario 3 inthe scenario DB 28.

As described above, in the image forming apparatus utilization system100 according to the fifth embodiment, if plural scenarios are selected,one of the scenarios having the duplicated delivery destinationinformation is selected by the user. Accordingly, although the documentis read based on the different reading conditions to generate imagedata, the image data may be prevented from being transmitted two or moretimes to the same address. Further, since computers to which the imagedata are delivered may be prevented from receiving the image data two ormore times, storage regions of such computers may have an increase intheir available capacities. Moreover, the transmission cost may also bereduced. Furthermore, since the scenario DB 28 does not need to registerany other scenarios (i.e., new or modified scenarios), the availablecapacity of the scenario DB 28 may also be increased. In the fifthembodiment, the usability of the image forming apparatus utilizationsystem 100 for the user is much improved because the user selects whichscenario (having delivery destination information) he or she would liketo execute.

Sixth Embodiment

In the image forming apparatus utilization system 100 according to thethird to fifth embodiments, the image forming apparatus operates in apredetermined manner. However, if the user can select the operations ofthe image forming apparatus 13, the usability of the image formingapparatus utilization system 100 may be much improved. An image formingapparatus utilization system 100 according to a sixth embodiment iscapable of allowing the user to select one of the criteria including the“order of scenario selection”, the “scenario cost rating”, and the“selected result determined by the user” in advance, such that the imageforming apparatus 13 is capable of selecting one of the scenarios basedon the criterion selected by the user. A description is given below ofthe image forming apparatus utilization system 100 according to thesixth embodiment.

FIG. 25 is a block diagram illustrating an example of functionalcomponents of the image forming utilization system 100 according to thesixth embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 25, components identical tothose of FIG. 6 are provided with the same reference numerals and thedescriptions thereof are omitted. In the image forming apparatusutilization system 100 according to the sixth embodiment, the imageforming apparatus 13 includes a scenario selection criterion settingsection 315 (scenario selection criterion reception unit). The scenarioselection criterion setting section 315 is connected to the scenarioselection order determination section 312, the scenario cost comparisonsection 313, and the scenario selection content transmission section314. The scenario selection criterion setting section 315 displays alist of scenario selection criteria including the “order of scenarioselection”, the “scenario cost rating”, and the “selected resultdetermined by the user” for selecting one of the scenarios on theoperations panel 57. When the user selects one of the scenario selectioncriteria, the scenario selection criterion setting section 315 receivesthe selected criterion to set it to the image forming apparatus 13.

Note that the user may select one of the scenario selection criteriawith any operation or at any time. For example, the user may startsetting one of the scenario selection criteria to the image formingapparatus 13 by pressing a “system initial configuration” key of theimage forming apparatus 13 and subsequently selecting one of tabs of thedisplayed screen.

FIG. 26 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen 501 for settinga scenario selection criterion when the delivery destination informationis duplicated in the plural scenarios. The scenario selection criterionsetting section 315 receives a series of operations (i.e., pressing ofthe “system configuration” key, selecting one of the tabs of the displayscreen), and displays the screen 501 illustrated in FIG. 26 on theoperations panel 57. As illustrated in FIG. 26, the scenario selectionscreen 501 displays a message 502 “the following scenarios have theduplicated address “XXX@xxx”. Select a desired scenario selectioncriterion”, a scenario selection criteria list 503, and an “OK” button504. The scenario selection criteria list 503 includes “transmit basedon order of scenario selection”, “transmit based on scenario costrating”, and “manually select scenario” items.

When the “transmit based on order of scenario selection” item isselected, the scenario selection criterion setting section 315 activatesthe scenario selection order determination section 312. Similar to thethird embodiment, the scenario selection order determination section 312records the order of scenario selection determined by the user andreports the order of scenario selection for the selected scenarios tothe central-execution section 31. When the “transmit based on scenariocost rating” item is selected, the scenario selection criterion settingsection 315 activates the scenario cost comparison section 312. Similarto the fourth embodiment, the scenario cost comparison section 313assigns cost ratings for transmitting image data to the plural scenariosin ascending order of cost (i.e., from very low to very high), andreports the corresponding cost ratings assigned to the scenarios to thecentral-execution section 31. When the “user select scenario attransmission” item is selected, the scenario selection criterion settingsection 315 activates the scenario selection content transmissionsection 314. Similar to the fifth embodiment, the scenario selectioncontent transmission section 314 receives the selected result of thescenario determined by the user and reports the received selected resultto the central-execution section 31.

The scenario selection criterion setting section 315 replaces theselected one of the scenario selection criteria with a flag or the likeand stores the flag or the like. With this flag, the central-executionsection 31 is able to detect a currently active scenario selectioncriterion.

FIGS. 27A and 27B depict a sequence diagram illustrating an example of aprocedure in which an image forming apparatus 13 selects one ofscenarios based on the scenario selection criterion selected (set) bythe user. Note that in FIGS. 27A and 27B, components identical to thoseof FIGS. 9A and 9B are provided with the same reference numerals and thedescriptions thereof are omitted. Note that steps S1 through S15 of thesixth embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 27A and 27B are identical to thoseof the first to fifth embodiments. That is, one of the scenarioselection criteria is already selected by the user before the processingillustrated in the sequence diagram of FIGS. 27A and 27B is initiated.

As illustrated in the first to the fifth embodiments, the duplicatedscenario destination identification section 35 transfers all theselected scenarios that include the duplicated delivery destinationinformation (obtained as a result of the query) to the central-executionsection 31 (S15) as illustrated in FIGS. 27A and 27B.

The central-execution section 31 requests the scenario selectioncriterion setting section 315 to transmit a selected one of the scenarioselection criteria set by the user (S501). The scenario selectioncriterion setting section 315 reports the currently selected one of thescenario selection criteria with the corresponding flag or the like tothe central-execution section 31 (S502).

The central-execution section 31 acquires the scenario selectioncriterion selected by the user from the scenario selection criterionsetting section 315 and selects one of the scenarios having duplicateddelivery destination information based on the selected scenarioselection criterion. That is, if the selected one of the scenarioselection criteria determined by the user is the “transmit based onorder of scenario selection”, the central-execution section 31 requeststhe scenario selection order determination section 312 to provide theorder of scenario selection (S201). If the selected one of the scenarioselection criteria determined by the user is the “transmit based onscenario cost rating”, the central-execution section 31 requests thescenario cost comparison section 313 to provide the cost ratings ofscenarios in ascending order of cost (S301). If the selected one of thescenario selection criteria determined by the user is the “user selectscenario at transmission”, the central-execution section 31 requests thescenario selection content transmission section 314 to provide theselected result of the scenario determined by the user (S401). Thecorresponding processing for steps S201, S301, and S401 is the same asthose described in the third, fourth, and fifth embodiments.

As described above, in the image forming apparatus utilization system100 according to the sixth embodiment, the user is able to select adesired one of the scenario selection criteria. Accordingly, theusability of the image forming apparatus utilization system 100according to the sixth embodiment for the user is much improved becausethe user is able to set any one of the scenario selection criteria ofthe third, fourth, and fifth embodiments in the image forming apparatus13.

Seventh Embodiment

In the sixth embodiment, the user sets one of the scenario selectioncriteria in advance in a system initial configuration of the imageforming apparatus if the plural scenarios include duplicated deliverydestination information. However, in the sixth embodiment, once thescenario selection criterion selected is set in advance in the imageforming apparatus 13, it is difficult to alter the selected scenarioselection criterion after the image forming apparatus 13 has started theexecution of the selected scenario. Thus, an image forming apparatusutilization system 100 according to a seventh embodiment is capable ofallowing the user to set one of duplicated address scenario selectioncriteria in the image forming apparatus 13 after the image formingapparatus 13 has started the execution of the selected scenario. Adescription of the image forming apparatus utilization system 100according to the seventh embodiment is given below.

FIG. 28 is a block diagram illustrating an example of functionalcomponents of the image forming utilization system 100 according to theseventh embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 28, components identical tothose of FIG. 25 are provided with the same reference numerals and thedescriptions thereof are omitted. In the image forming apparatusutilization system 100 according to the seventh embodiment, the imageforming apparatus 13 includes a scenario selection criterion selectingsection 316 (scenario selection criterion reception unit). The scenarioselection criterion selecting section 316 is connected to the scenarioselection order determination section 312, the scenario cost comparisonsection 313, and the scenario selection content transmission section314. The scenario selection criterion selecting section 316 displays alist of scenario selection criteria including the “order of scenarioselection”, the “scenario cost rating”, and the “selected resultdetermined by the user” for selecting one of the scenarios on theoperations panel 57. When the user select one of the scenario selectioncriteria, the scenario selection criterion selecting section 316dynamically activates a corresponding one of the scenario selectionorder determination section 312, the scenario cost comparison section313, and the scenario selection content transmission section 314 basedon the selected result (i.e., selected scenario selection criterion)determined by the user.

FIGS. 29A and 29B depict a sequence diagram illustrating an example of aprocedure in which an image forming apparatus 13 selects one ofscenarios based on the scenario selection criterion selected (set) bythe user. Note that in FIGS. 29A and 29B, components identical to thoseof FIGS. 9A and 9B are provided with the same reference numerals and thedescriptions thereof are omitted.

Note that steps S1 through S15 of the seventh embodiment illustrated inFIGS. 29A and 29B are identical to those of the first to fifthembodiments. As illustrated in the first to the fifth embodiments, theduplicated scenario destination identification section 35 transfers allthe selected scenarios that include the duplicated delivery destinationinformation (obtained as a result of the query) to the central-executionsection 31 (S15) as illustrated in FIGS. 29A and 29B.

The central-execution section 31 requests the scenario selectioncriterion selecting section 316 to display a duplicated address scenarioselection criterion selection screen 601 (see FIG. 30) on the operationspanel 57 (S601). The scenario selection criterion selecting section 316displays the scenario selection criterion selection screen 601 on theoperations panel 57 (S602). FIG. 30 is a diagram illustrating an exampleof the duplicated scenario selection criterion selection screen 601displayed on the operations panel 57.

The duplicated address scenario selection criterion selection screen 601displays a message 602 “the selected scenarios have the duplicatedaddress “XXX@xxx”. Select a desired scenario selection criterion”, ascenario selection criteria list 603, and an “OK” button 604. Thescenario selection criteria list 603 includes “transmit based on orderof scenario selection”, “transmit based on scenario cost rating”, and“transmit based on scenario manually selected by user” items.

The user selects any of the items of the scenario selection criterialist 603. The scenario selection criterion selecting section 316receives a selected result determined by the user (S603). When the“transmit based on order of scenario selection” item is selected, thescenario selection criterion selecting section 316 activates thescenario selection order determination section 312. Similar to the thirdembodiment, the scenario selection order determination section 312records the order of scenario selection determined by the user andreports the order of scenario selection for the selected scenarios tothe central-execution section 31 (S604). The central-execution section31 selects one of the scenarios based on the order of scenarioselection.

When the “transmit based on scenario cost rating” item is selected, thescenario selection criterion selecting section 316 activates thescenario cost comparison section 313. Similar to the fourth embodiment,the scenario cost comparison section 313 assigns cost ratings fortransmitting image data to the plural scenarios in ascending order ofcost (i.e., from very low to very high), and reports the correspondingcost ratings assigned to the scenarios to the central-execution section31 (S604). The central-execution section 31 selects one of the scenariosbased on the cost ratings of the scenarios.

Further, when the “user select scenario at transmission” item isselected, the scenario selection criterion selecting section 316activates the scenario selection content transmission section 314.Similar to the fifth embodiment, the scenario selection contenttransmission section 314 displays a list of the scenarios reported bythe central-execution section 31 on the operations panel 57 so that theuser can select a desired one of the scenarios. That is, a screendisplays a list of scenarios similar to that in FIG. 24 on an operationspanel. When the user selects one of the scenarios from the scenariolist, the scenario selection content transmission section 314 receivesthe selected scenario. The scenario selection content transmissionsection 314 reports the received scenario (i.e., selected resultdetermined by the user) to the central-execution section 31 (S604).Subsequent processing (i.e., steps) is the same as those described inthe third, fourth, and fifth embodiments.

As described above, in the image forming apparatus utilization system100 according to the seventh embodiment, the user is able to select adesired one of the scenario selection criteria. Accordingly, theusability of the image forming apparatus utilization system 100according to the seventh embodiment for the user is much improvedbecause the user is able to dynamically set any one of the scenarioselection criteria of the third, fourth, and fifth embodiments to theimage forming apparatus 13 while the scenarios are being executed.

According to the first to seventh embodiments, there are provided theimage forming apparatus having an excellent user-friendly interfacecapable of facilitating a user's understanding of a relationship betweendestinations and processing conditions for image data when pluralprocessing conditions are selected in the directory service, the imageforming utilization system and the method for generating image data inthe image forming apparatus.

Embodiments of the present invention have been described heretofore forthe purpose of illustration. The present invention is not limited tothese embodiments, but various variations and modifications may be madewithout departing from the scope of the present invention. The presentinvention should not be interpreted as being limited to the embodimentsthat are described in the specification and illustrated in the drawings.

This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority ofJapanese Patent Application No. 2009-200617, filed on Aug. 31, 2009, theentire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

1. An image forming apparatus connected to a scenario storage device andan image delivery apparatus via a network, the image forming apparatusbeing configured to read a document based on a scenario to generateimage data and transmit the image data with the scenario to the imagedelivery apparatus, the scenario storage device being configured tostore a set of the scenarios authorized for a user of the image formingapparatus, each of the scenarios including a document reading settingfor reading the document to generate the image data and a deliverysetting having delivery destination information for delivering the imagedata, the image delivery apparatus including a scenario validityevaluation unit configured to evaluate validity of the scenariotransmitted from the image forming apparatus based on whether thetransmitted scenario matches one of scenarios in the set of thescenarios authorized for the user stored in the scenario storage deviceand a delivery unit configured to deliver, if the scenario validityevaluation unit validates the transmitted scenario, the image data basedon the delivery destination information of the transmitted scenario, theimage forming apparatus comprising: a scenario retrieving unitconfigured to retrieve the set of the scenarios authorized for the userfrom the scenario storage device; a scenario reception unit configuredto receive at least one of the scenarios selected by the user from theset of the scenarios retrieved from the scenario retrieving unit; aplural scenario selection identification unit configured to determinewhether the scenario reception unit has received the plural scenariosselected by the user from the set of the scenarios retrieved from thescenario retrieving unit; a scenario destination acquisition unitconfigured to acquire, if the scenario reception unit has received theplural scenarios selected by the user from the set of the scenariosretrieved from the scenario retrieving unit, the delivery destinationinformation from the plural scenarios selected by the user from the setof the scenarios retrieved from the scenario retrieving unit to create aset of the acquired delivery destination information; a duplicatedscenario destination identification unit configured to determine whetherduplicated delivery destination information is contained in the set ofthe acquired delivery destination information obtained from the pluralscenarios by the scenario destination acquisition unit; a scenarioprocessing unit configured to carry out, if the duplicated scenariodestination identification unit has determined that the duplicateddelivery destination information is contained in the set of the acquireddelivery destination information obtained from the plural scenarios bythe scenario destination acquisition unit, processing on at least one ofthe plural scenarios to create a new set of the plural scenariosincluding the at least one processed scenario such that the image dataare transmitted once to a delivery destination of the duplicateddelivery destination information based on the new set of the pluralscenarios including the at least one processed scenario; and a scenarioregistration request unit configured to store the at least one processedscenario in the scenario storage device.
 2. The image forming apparatusas claimed in claim 1, further comprising: an address deleting unitconfigured to delete, if the duplicated scenario destinationidentification unit has determined that the duplicated deliverydestination information is contained in the set of the acquired deliverydestination information obtained from the plural scenarios by thescenario destination acquisition unit, all the duplicated deliverydestination information except for one from the set of the acquireddelivery destination information obtained from the plural scenarios. 3.The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising: ascenario selection order determination unit configured to identify, ifthe duplicated scenario destination identification unit has determinedthat the duplicated delivery destination information is contained in theset of the acquired delivery destination information obtained from theplural scenarios by the scenario destination acquisition unit, aselected order of the plural scenarios selected by the user when thescenario reception unit has received the plural scenarios selected bythe user from the set of the scenarios retrieved from the scenarioretrieving unit, wherein the scenario reception unit requests generatingthe image data by reading the document based on the scenario having afirst place in a selected order of the plural scenarios having theduplicated delivery destination information.
 4. The image formingapparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising: a scenario costcomputation unit configured to compute, if the duplicated scenariodestination identification unit has determined that the duplicateddelivery destination information is contained in the set of the acquireddelivery destination information obtained from the plural scenarios bythe scenario destination acquisition unit, costs of transmitting theimage data based on the respective reading settings or the deliverysettings of the plural scenarios, wherein the scenario reception unitrequests generating the image data by reading the document based on thescenario having a lowest cost selected from the plural scenarios havingthe duplicated delivery destination information.
 5. The image formingapparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising: a scenarioselection content reception unit configured to receive, if theduplicated delivery destination information is contained in the set ofthe acquired delivery destination information obtained from the pluralscenarios by the scenario destination acquisition unit, a selected oneof the plural scenarios having the duplicated delivery destinationinformation, wherein the scenario reception unit requests for generatingthe image data by reading the document based on the selected one of theplural scenarios having the duplicated delivery destination informationreceived by the scenario selection content reception unit.
 6. The imageforming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising: a scenarioselection criterion reception unit configured to receive, if theduplicated delivery destination information is contained in the set ofthe acquired delivery destination information obtained from the pluralscenarios by the scenario destination acquisition unit, one of criteriafor selecting one of the plural scenarios having the duplicated deliverydestination information, wherein the scenario reception unit requestsgenerating the image data by reading the document based on the scenariohaving the selected one of the criteria received by the scenarioselection criterion reception unit selected from the plural scenarioshaving the duplicated delivery destination information.
 7. The imageforming apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein the selected one of thecriteria is one of a selected order of the plural scenarios selected bythe user, an ascending order of costs of transmitting the image datacomputed based on the respective reading settings or the deliverysettings of the plural scenarios selected by the user, and a desiredscenario selected by the user from the plural scenarios when thescenario reception unit has received the plural scenarios selected bythe user from the set of the scenarios retrieved from the scenarioretrieving unit.
 8. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1,further comprising: a scenario selection criterion reception unitconfigured to receive, if the duplicated delivery destinationinformation is contained in the set of the acquired delivery destinationinformation obtained from the plural scenarios by the scenariodestination acquisition unit, one of criteria for selecting one of theplural scenarios having the duplicated delivery destination information,wherein the scenario reception unit requests generating the image databy reading the document based on the scenario having the selected one ofthe criteria received in advance by the scenario selection criterionreception unit selected from the plural scenarios having the duplicateddelivery destination information.
 9. The image forming apparatus asclaimed in claim 8, wherein the selected one of the criteria is one of aselected order of the plural scenarios selected by the user, anascending order of costs of transmitting the image data computed basedon the respective reading settings or the delivery settings of theplural scenarios selected by the user, and a desired scenario selectedby the user from the plural scenarios when the scenario reception unithas received the plural scenarios selected by the user from the set ofthe scenarios retrieved from the scenario retrieving unit.
 10. An imageforming apparatus utilization system comprising: an image formingapparatus configured to read a document based on a scenario to generateimage data and transmit the image data with the scenario; a scenariostorage device configured to store a set of the scenarios authorized fora user of the image forming apparatus, each of the scenarios including adocument reading setting for reading the document to generate the imagedata and a delivery setting having delivery destination information fordelivering the image data carried out by the image forming apparatus;and an image delivery apparatus including a scenario validity evaluationunit configured to evaluate validity of the scenario transmitted fromthe image forming apparatus based on whether the transmitted scenariomatches one of the scenarios in the set of the scenarios authorized forthe user stored in the scenario storage device, and a delivery unitconfigured to deliver the image data based on the delivery destinationinformation of the transmitted scenario if the scenario validityevaluation unit validates the transmitted scenario, the image formingapparatus, the scenario storage device, and the image delivery apparatusbeing connected via a network, wherein the image forming apparatusincludes: a scenario retrieving unit configured to retrieve the set ofthe scenarios authorized for the user from the scenario storage device;a scenario reception unit configured to receive at least one of thescenarios selected by the user from the set of the scenarios retrievedfrom the scenario retrieving unit; a plural scenario selectionidentification unit configured to determine whether the scenarioreception unit has received the plural scenarios selected by the userfrom the set of the scenarios retrieved from the scenario retrievingunit; a scenario destination acquisition unit configured to acquire, ifthe scenario reception unit has received the plural scenarios selectedby the user from the set of the scenarios retrieved from the scenarioretrieving unit, delivery destination information from the pluralscenarios selected by the user from the set of the scenarios retrievedfrom the scenario retrieving unit to create a set of the acquireddelivery destination information; a duplicated scenario destinationidentification unit configured to determine whether duplicated deliverydestination information is contained in the set of the acquired deliverydestination information obtained from the plural scenarios by thescenario destination acquisition unit; a scenario processing unitconfigured to carry out, if the duplicated scenario destinationidentification unit has determined that the duplicated deliverydestination information is contained in the set of the acquired deliverydestination information obtained from the plural scenarios by thescenario destination acquisition unit, processing on at least one of theplural scenarios to create a new set of the plural scenarios includingthe at least one processed scenario such that the image data aretransmitted once to a delivery destination of the duplicated deliverydestination information based on the new set of the plural scenariosincluding the at least one processed scenario; and a scenarioregistration request unit configured to store the at least one processedscenario in the scenario storage device.
 11. A method for generatingimage data in an image forming apparatus for reading a document based ona scenario to generate the image data and transmitting the image datawith the scenario to an image delivery apparatus, the image formingapparatus being connected to a scenario storage device and to the imagedelivery apparatus via a network, the scenario storage device beingconfigured to store a set of the scenarios authorized for a user of theimage forming apparatus, each of the scenarios including a documentreading setting for reading the document to generate the image data anda delivery setting having delivery destination information fordelivering the image data, the image delivery apparatus including ascenario validity evaluation unit configured to evaluate validity of thescenario transmitted from the image forming apparatus based on whetherthe transmitted scenario matches one of the scenarios in the set of thescenarios authorized for the user stored in the scenario storage deviceand a delivery unit configured to deliver, if the scenario validityevaluation unit validates the transmitted scenario, the transmittedimage data based on the delivery destination information contained inthe transmitted scenario, the method comprising: retrieving the set ofthe scenarios authorized for the user from the scenario storage device;receiving at least one of the scenarios selected by the user from theretrieved set of the scenarios; determining whether the plural scenariosselected by the user from the retrieved set of the scenarios have beenreceived; acquiring, if the plural scenarios selected by the user fromthe retrieved set of the scenarios have been received, deliverydestination information from the plural scenarios selected by the userfrom the retrieved set of the scenarios to create a set of the acquireddelivery destination information; determining whether duplicateddelivery destination information is contained in the set of the acquireddelivery destination information obtained from the plural scenarios;carrying out, if the duplicated delivery destination information iscontained in the set of the acquired delivery destination informationobtained from the plural scenarios, processing on at least one of theplural scenarios to create a new set of the plural scenarios includingthe at least one processed scenario such that the image data aretransmitted once to a delivery destination of the duplicated deliverydestination information based on the new set of the plural scenariosincluding the at least one processed scenario; and storing the at leastone processed scenario in the scenario storage device.